Message of Mewtwo
by Mewgia Mirrorcoat
Summary: Two years after the end of their first adventure, the Digidestined find themselves in another world, allied with a Pokemon master, in a quest to rescue seven Legendaries before evil uses them for destruction.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or Digimon, but I do own the dragons, and that dark thing, as well as the human mentioned in this segment. I also own the Middle World.  
A/N: Because I wrote this originally so long ago, I'm rewriting it and updating everything, making it one heck of a lot better than it originally was. Certain things have been changed, I'll probably upload something explaining the changes...Well, after not updating this thing for years, here is the rewritten prologue!

Message of Mewtwo  
By Mewgia Mirrorcoat

Prologue

In the Middle World, seven creatures gracefully flew together through the sunlit sky. Each at peace with the others, they dove between each other's flight lines, creating patterns of color in the air. Without a care, they each watched the land below, focusing on different terrains and places dotted throughout the surface.

A small pink cat-like creature cried out playfully, whizzing by her moody counterpart, who rolled his eyes in reply. The creature gave an indignant mew, and unable to resist, her friend quickly flew after her. The two tussled in the air, giving psychic laughs and creating beams of pink and blue colored light, catching the attention of the elder pokémon who flew with them.

Soon, the Water guardian flew to the two, attempting to beat them at their own game. Her rival shook his golden head, as rays of sunlight reflected off his shining feathers. "_Lugia was never a sensible one_," he spoke to the blue icy bird next to him.

"_At least Lugia knows how to have fun_," she answered, her spark of sarcasm showing from beneath her icy exterior. "_Sometimes, we all need to relax, Houou._"

A crowing cackle came from behind the two birds. "_Ha, you should be one to talk, Articuno!_" a brash sharp-winged bird answered hotly, "_Just look at Mew and Mewtwo!_" He nodded towards the two cat creatures tumbling in the air, without a care as to their dignity. Lugia happily chased them, while Mew only giggled and continued to flee the two larger pokémon. "_And of course, Moltres does nothing._"

"_I'm only keeping a lookout, Zapdos_," the final bird defended, as he watched the ground below carefully. "_Remember the prophecy. And Mewtwo's warning yesterday._"

Zapdos nodded his head, understanding. Anything given as a warning by Mewtwo was automatically taken seriously. He had to give Moltres some credit for staying cautious.

The seven continued their flight above the Middle World, watching as both digimon and pokémon played together below them. The Middle World, aptly called because of being the middle segment between both the Digital world and the Pokémon world. The two were related, and in the bond between the two worlds, the third had come together. Of what the seven knew, peace reigned throughout the land, with different generations of pokémon Legendaries and strong digimon watching. Of course, with some of the recent problems in both the Pokéworld and the Digiworld, everyone had to keep on their toes a bit.

Without warning, Moltres suddenly let out a blast of flame aimed in front, veering closer to the group. Mew, Mewtwo, and Lugia stopped their play, wondering what could be the cause of Moltres' warning signal, and were quickly answered by a large, dark shape approaching them.

Together, the seven flew down and to the right, carefully watching the shape as it came closer, and began to relay several messages to Mewtwo and Mew to convey to their parents, an earlier generation that still kept the responsibility of watching the world. As a test, Lugia let out a beam of light towards the dark shape, to see the reaction.

The shape immediately broke apart, separating into a giant cloud, coming towards them. The seven pokémon glanced at each other – they remembered the warning vision Mewtwo had told them. One of capture, manipulation, and the hope of a prophecy.

Zapdos, forever rash and quick to anger, let a blast of lightning strike through the cloud. It thinned slightly, before recovering its original volume. It came closer now, and the group could see the cloud was not simply a cloud, but a huge flock of bats.

Mewtwo's already slanted eyes narrowed. He remembered his vision, and it returned clearer than before. Bats. Dragons. Darkness. Lightning.

The cloud of bats came first, finally surrounding the pokémon before they could break away. Articuno shot beams of ice, Zapdos crackled with extra electricity, Moltres became a flaming whirlwind of fire. Bats continued to smother the pokémon, cutting off sight, and space to move. It was then that a whip of red lightning flashed down, wrapping itself around Lugia's neck, pulling, then releasing as Lugia's form fell from the sky. Articuno attempted to break free of the bats to help her friend, but the bats only followed her, pulling her away and back into the cluster.

The dragons came next. Dusk dragons, insubstantial black beasts, yet deadly. They swooped easily between the bats, striking with rays of black lightning at the six remaining pokémon. Articuno, having been the first one to resist the bats earlier, found herself the first to fail at the claws of the dusk dragons. She gave a cry of regret and anger as she fell, unable to fight. Zapdos and Moltres gave looks of terror and shock as their closest comrade disappeared from the fight, while Houou let loose another rainbow beam, being the only one the dusk dragons could not attack.

Then came the Darkness. It enveloped the remaining five, with the bats and dusk dragons in all. Houou, the beacon of light in the darkness, found his strength being pulled away, as pain began to enter into his body. He gave a cry of rage, unable to admit defeat, as he continued to fight, even as the darkness forced him down. Mew, close to Houou, felt the effects of the darkness, and slowly, the negative power overwhelmed her sense of innocence. She fell from the sky as well, along with Houou.

Then came the sudden blasts of lightning. Weakened by the dusk dragons and the darkness, Moltres felt the blasts cut through his limbs, cutting off his senses and feelings. Despite his best efforts, the paralysis claimed his ability to fly and he slowly fell from the cluster of darkness, bats, and dusk dragons as well. Zapdos looked down in shock as the second of the trio of Legendary birds fell, to where the lightning came from. He could only find himself unable to move, as a dusk dragon raked him with its claws, and fired another beam of black lightning. As he fell, darkness overtaking him, a sense of rage built within him. _A human?! How..._

Mewtwo continued to fight, letting beams of pure psychic energy blast holes through the wall of bats, dragons, and darkness. But even he could see a losing battle. His vision had come true, despite everyone's best efforts. All he could do was warn the current Guardians of the world...

He sent images to them, where they rested throughout the land, from places like the forest, to the mountains, desert, lake, waterfall, and others. He remembered the prophecy, made years earlier by a wise Mewtwo, his own predecessor.

As he saw four figures approach, he sent forward a message, in the form of a dream. Within it lay the prophecy, and visions of the future.

Nothing could be decided yet. As Mewtwo felt his strength fail, he saw the four figures more closely. A vampire creature. A black dragon. A cloud of pure darkness. And a human. With desperation, he threw his mind into the message as the black of unconsciousness claimed him.

The message was all that could be done. The rest lay to souls sleeping in another world.

It would change lives, he thought.


	2. Dreams of the Future

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon or Pokemon, but I do own my character, as well as the storyline for this.

A/N: Many years ago, in the 6th grade, before Digimon Adventure 02 came out, I was an avid Pokefan who had a budding interest in digimon. I started writing this, on paper, and then attempted to write it on the computer. Now, years later, 5 I think, I am still a Pokefan to a degree and a major Digifan as well...And I found the original story sitting in a binder full of paper on my desk. I am rewriting the entire thing, making edits and such... (I'm also making it fit into the entire Digimon timeline as well, since it didn't quite fit in the original version...)

Like the original however, the storyline is generally the same, though there are now explanations for things and certain ideas are more developed. I'll probably make a big note at the end on what has changed, and whatnot...

Random notes on couples: Taiora, Jyoumi, and very bare hints of Takari. Also one-sided Sorato... (And the OC has her own love interest... you'll never meet him in this story though. ) And some very strange/random pokepairings... Remember, this story is meant to fit into the Digimon timeline, so...pairing can change.

Unlike the original, however, I've decided to add little silly things off of scenes in the chapter at the ends of chapters (I call them NGs...and I've seen them in both Gundam Wing and Fushigi Yugi manga). If this ends up distracting readers who want to see just the main story, email me or tell me in a review or something, and if I get enough complaints of them, I won't put it in. I wrote the originals of these NG things years ago, and thought they would be kind of like a little humourous break off of the normal story.

Anyway, I'll stop talking and being sentimental. Enjoy!

Note: Wolf Knot has pointed out that I had the quote at the end of the chapter wrong. I haven't seen the movie in years... Well, I have now fixed it. Thanks Wolf Knot!

* * *

**Chapter 1**

_Dreams of the Future_

_---_

"I can't sleep...I can't sleep...Charizard, can you get out of the closet and knock me out please?"

From where he was, the large orange dragon pokémon glanced over at his black-haired trainer, who had dark bags underneath her eyes. She lay in her bed halfway under her covers, pale and looking very much like a zombie. Charizard snorted. "Good morning Nicole! Serves you right for staying up all night. Hey, that kinda rhymed!"

Nicole only groaned and gave him a strange sort of half asleep death glare. However, having relatively harmless looking brown eyes, a round face, and having reached her final height of 5'4", she didn't make a very fearsome threat to her pokémon, who was a happy four feet taller. Her shoulder length black hair was sprawled out in a sweaty mess on her pillow, and her normally tan face was strangely pale. "Just do it or something. I don't care if you give me a concussion, I just wanna' sleep!"

Charizard shrugged as he got out of the closet. "Then perform Hypnosis on yourself or something!"

"Whatever..." Nicole rolled over, pulling her pillow out from under her head and stuffing her head under it.

Scyther popped her head over the back of the dresser. "Wow, you must be really tired to not make a comment back," she remarked as she agilely jumped up over the dresser and landed by Charizard, narrowly missing a clock which read 8:43 AM.

"Yes," came a deep grunt from outside. Venusaur carefully opened the door, and came in, being barely small enough to fit. "The poor dear insomniac we have as a trainer."

"Shut up! Turn the sun off!" Nicole yelled.

Charizard widened his eyes, the equivalent of a human raising their eyebrows, as Raichu popped up from under the desk to close the blinds. "You do know your mom is going to kill you if you're not up in an hour," the mouse pokémon said matter-of-factly as she turned back around after completing her small mission.

"I don't care. It's August. I don't wanna study extra Geometry. I wanna sleep. But I can't."

Venusaur found himself pushed forward as Blastoise entered the room, rolling her eyes. "Give yourself a break, you push yourself too hard. You're young!"

"Yeah! Thirteen!" Scyther piped from her place.

"So?"

- You poor, poor thing, - another voice echoed sarcastically inside everyone's heads. The five pokémon assembled in the room glanced up to the lamp, where a small gold dragon sat. About the length of a human arm, the dragon hopped up to the shelf, cocking her head to the side. - Okay, I guess if you have to sleep, now's not a good time to do it. You'll have to wait for another thirteen hours. -

Nicole took her head out from under the blanket and looked blearily at the dragon. "You could at least be sympathetic or something, Stellath."

"Okay! We give! Let the hypnosis master handle the job and help the pokémon master!" came a final voice from beyond the wall. Haunter floated through the wall right above Nicole's bed.

Nicole smiled. "Thank you for being understanding, Haunter, unlike you guys," she glared at the others assembled in the room. "Who are so mean to those who are not morning persons."

Charizard just gave a wide grin and saluted with his right claw. "Just doing our duty, Pokémon Master with Scary Psychic Skills!"

Nicole groaned, deciding to completely ignore her team as Haunter mercifully performed Hypnosis on her. She immediately fell into a very deep sleep.

-----

Though normally sleeping was a peaceful activity, for one thirteen year old blonde boy, it suddenly became a very large shock.

"GYAH!!"

A canine eyes blinked in concern. "I'm sorry, did I scare you?"

A pair of blue human eyes blinked back in confusion. "GABUMON?!"

"MATT?!"

Matt immediately pounded on the light switch he had next to his bed, and a blinding flash lit the room, making his eyes water from the intense brightness. He squinted as he saw, quite unmistakably, his digimon partner sitting on his bed, also blinking in confusion. For a moment, the dog-like digimon with blue fur and the horn on his head only stared, and Matt stared back. Then the moment broke, and the two found themselves swept up in a hug together.

For a moment, it didn't matter that it was almost two in the morning, or that Gabumon had mysteriously appeared in Matt's room with no apparent portal in sight. Having not really met up with each other for nearly two years and going through countless adventures, battles, and timeless near-death situations together, they didn't care. For what they felt, they saw a close reunion of two good friends.

The two separated, grinning at each other. "It's great to see you again Gabumon," Matt smiled as he held his friend's large claw.

"You too, my friend."

Matt continued smiling, even though a puzzled expression came over his face. "I really hate to ruin this moment, but how did you get here?"

Gabumon also adopted a puzzled look, though he seemed more thoughtful about it. "I don't know. I was sleeping when I suddenly awoke and felt a strange force pushing against me. Like a wave almost," he added, then continued. "The next thing I knew, I was flying, and here."

Matt's puzzled look turned into concern. "That's weird. Have you heard of anything like that happening in the Digiworld before?"

Gabumon shook his head. "Unless you count the wave of energy that brought you to the Digiworld two years ago, no."

"Hmmm..." Matt brought himself closer and let his arm rest on Gabumon's blue furry shoulder. "This is all very strange."

"And I'm still very sleepy."

Matt had to grin to himself. "Hey, join the club, sleepyhead. After all, it's not very often when your partner zips through dimensions and lands in your bed."

Gabumon shrugged. "Well, I suppose we should think this over in the morning then, when we're all awake."

Matt shrugged absently. "Sure thing. Here, get under the covers, it's warmer."

"Thanks, Matt."

Unable to think clearly at such an early hour, the two simultaneously closed their eyes, letting drowsiness take over. It wasn't long before they were snoring together.

-----

The dream came vividly, more so than any other dream had in the past. Various souls, most of them asleep, came to experience it, while those who were not asleep entered into a trance as the dream came to them.

The boy with a large mess of brown hair on his head didn't know what to think. He saw many figures floating in a sort of dark void, a place of nothingness. He recognized the silhouettes of his Digidestined friends – all seven of them; small TK with his bucket hat, his sister Kari who had reached his shoulder in height, Mimi with pink hair, the still short Izzy who had an air of calmness to him, his life long friend Sora, his best friend Matt with his spiky blond hair starting to grow out, and the tall Joe with his blue hair growing down past his chin. Everyone had changed. The Digiworld had seen to that. Two years of life on Earth had also done the same.

And then there was himself, Tai, the leader of the group, also in the same void. He usually had good plans in his head for any situation, and he always brought the team together. He wasn't wearing his customary goggles, but he hadn't wanted to wear them to bed.

Tai knew the entire situation was a dream. He didn't know how he was able to know, but the knowledge had imbedded itself in his mind. But he also knew that what was going on was more realistic than any dream he had ever had.

He glanced down at his side and saw his dinosaur like partner Agumon there, staring ahead in confusion. He continued to look around, and soon, he could also discern the shapes of various digimon, all by their respective partners – the flying batpig creature Patamon with TK, Gatomon the catlike digimon by Kari, the seal Gomamon with Joe, Mimi with her walking plant Palmon, Tentomon the electro bug digimon by Izzy, Sora with her pink bird digimon Biyomon, and Matt with the dog creature Gabumon. But before long, he could also see there were others there besides only their team – but somehow, they were all different.

First, he noticed a large dragon like creature with a burning tail, next to a graceful, lithe creature with two scythes for its arms. A giant turtle with cannons popping out of its shell stood next, a large dinosaur with a huge flower on its back by it. A small mouse creature with large earls and a long, whiplike lightning bolt tail watched attentively, while an almost insubstantial, ghostlike being floated above it.

There were more as well. He saw a small, thin lizard creature, with a flame on its tail like the dragon. A small clam. A giant bellplant that could easily eat a full human. A small fox creature.

Despite the many strange creatures that Tai supposed were digimon, he could see two more figures that were truly unlike the rest. One was a small dragonet, floating in the air, and the last was a human. He noted the human, wondering briefly if this person had anything to do with digimon. He could at least tell the person was a girl his age, with long hair and a thin, weathered figure.

Tai didn't get a chance to watch and see anything else, because then a bright light from the center of the area shone out, blinding him. He brought up a hand to shield his eyes, as he squinted, trying to make out what had happened.

In the center of the area, the source of light, stood a tall, almost feline humanoid creature. As its long tail twitched, it shone, giving off an aura of pure power and knowledge. Its violet fur covered tensed muscles beneath its skin, and its slanted, cat eyes belayed a sense of urgency.

_Mewtwo_, said a voice in Tai's head. The creature was called Mewtwo.

Mewtwo turned its head around, gazing thoughtfully at each of the figures assembled. Its body began to glow a soft blue, as it opened its mouth slightly. Yet it didn't speak, nor did it move from its place. Tai instead heard a voice within his head that echoed in a hollow manner. He could tell that everyone could hear the voice, the voice of the creature before them.

- _You who stand here...remember these words. The worlds are unstable, gates are open. World travelers, find the Middle World. You must help it. And remember this prophecy..._ -

Its eyes began to glow blue as well.

- _Four Dark Lords come from different lands_

_Each to gain power in worlds more than their own._

_Four shall arise and fight directly_

_Connected, they come, evil's bane._

_Friendship, Victory, Loyalty, Queen._

_Yet all who appear with them have their purpose_

_All the fighters will be vital to the struggle_

_Together, they fight to save many worlds._

_Find the Seven Guardians, gain their signs,_

_Rescue the Seven Innocents, return home._ -

The area began to glow white, as the blinding light covered everyone's vision.

- _You assembled here are the fighters. You must find a way to the Middle World. Rescue the Innocents. Such as myself..._ -

Mewtwo looked upwards, closing its eyes as the light filled everyone, and everything. Tai felt himself floating, higher, and away, aware of himself being suddenly alone. There was an emptiness in the air as he continued floating, giving off an aura of surrealism. But before long, the whiteness of the light suddenly faded, leaving him floating...

Above an abyss.

With a cry of shock, heat pounding Tai found himself suddenly falling, his body twisting itself in the air as it came down into the abyss. He watched, wordlessly as the walls came up around him, and the light above suddenly grew dim.

_It's only a dream..._

_A damn realistic one at that._

He was suddenly aware his eyes were closed, and he was lying down. With a sigh of relief, his heat still pounding, Tai opened them, looking out into the unlit, but familiar space of his room. It was still dark, and dawn hadn't even come yet, as only the fluorescent city lights could be seen through the blinds of his window. Turning over, he gazed out serenely, blankly thinking the dream over in his head.

_Was there really any point to that? Such a realistic dream... _He thought, fiddling with the corner of his pillow. _Maybe it was just the summer heat, it is really hot in here. _Tai absently lifted his head and picked up his pillow, turning it over to rest his head on the opposite, cooler side.

It was then that he realized there was another presence at the foot of his bed.

The shape sat up at the same time Tai did, shaking its head blearily around, surprised at its surroundings. Tai blinked as he recognized the large dinosaur head.

"Agumon? Agumon, is that you?!" Tai dropped his jaw, staring at the figure before him.

Agumon only stared back. "Tai?!"

It took a moment for them to register the fact that the two of them were there, existing before each other's eyes. Then they immediately pulled together into a tight embrace, refusing to let go for a good number of minutes.

"Um, Tai?"

"Yes, Agumon?"

"You're choking me."

Tai laughed slightly. "You're choking me too."

The two slowly let go, looking over each other and grinning like idiots, both to the best of their abilities. Within moments, the two began laughing, though quietly so as not to wake anyone up.

Then Tai sobered up. "Let me guess, you were chosen by some guardian of the Humans to come to the Human world and save it, so you were in the Digiworld minding your own business before you were suddenly whisked away here?" he asked, with a look of irony and puzzlement written across his face.

Agumon shrugged, looking confused. "I don't know. If sleeping is called minding your own business, then yes... I woke up here after having this really crazy dream though."

Tai's eyes widened, and he stared at Agumon. "Was I in it?"

"Yes."

"Was everyone else plus a bunch of weird digimon and another human in it?"

"Yes...but they weren't digimon."

"...Oh well. Mewtwo and a prophecy?"

"How did you know?"

Now Tai sat like a complete statue, mouth wide open and eyes staring in complete shock. He moved his jaw up and down in wordless astonishment, like a goldfish. Agumon could only stare back, as the realization hit both of them at the same time.

"We both had the same dream..." they said simultaneously.

There was a loud shout of "You too?!" from the room next door, and the sound of something falling onto the floor. Tai and Agumon jumped, glancing over at the wall sitting between the two rooms. Evidently, they weren't the only ones who had had the dream. If Tai's assumption was correct, Gatomon was in Kari's room, and they had just come to the same conclusion that Tai and Agumon. And if that was the case...

_Everyone had the same dream – everyone we saw in it. The digimon are here too. What does this mean? _

_Is it a new adventure?_

-----

Nicole stared panting at the ceiling of her room, while around her the pokémon glanced about dazedly, awaking from something. Raising a hand and wiping cold sweat off her brow, she narrowed her eyes as she thought about the dream. So many creatures... and other humans. Even Mewtwo. And her knowledge of psychism told her it was most certainly something to be aware of.

Her need for sleep forgotten, Nicole jumped out of bed. She took a quick peek at her clock, which read that it was nearly noon. Raising an eyebrow, she turned to the pokémon.

"Did Mom come in earlier?" she asked.

Massaging her temples, Blastoise nodded. "Yeah...your mom came in. Scy told her about your sleep problem. Your mom decided to be nice and let you sleep."

Nicole inwardly felt relieved that she'd taught both Scyther and Charizard how to read and write while all of them were growing up together. She still had four other pokémon and Stellath to teach, but that was beside the point.

"Thanks Scy," she nodded over to the green pokémon, who was shaking her head while dazedly looking about the room. Nicole blinked, then asked, "Did any of you have a dream with Mewtwo in it?"

"Yes," came the automatic reply from all seven of the other occupants of the room.

Nicole thought for a moment, her brow furrowing. Then she walked over to the desk, picking up a notebook and a pencil as she approached. She sat at it, thinking. "Something is up. Something really big is about to happen."

Everyone's heads popped up. "Do you think we're going to go back to the Pokéworld?" Venusaur asked. He'd always been the one who'd missed the Pokéworld the most, out of all the pokémon.

Nicole didn't answer. She opened her notebook, placing the pencil in her right hand. "Maybe. I don't know... but this dream was a message, from Mewtwo. I don't know what was up with the snow avalanche at the end - "

"Black dragons," Charizard immediately stated.

Nicole rolled her eyes. "Whatever was at the end, I'm guessing we all had different endings. The point is, that message is important, and we have to do something about it. If it means traveling to some other random world besides the Pokéworld, we may end up having to do so."

With solemn looks from the Pokémon and Stellath, Nicole nodded at all of them. The dream was the start of a new adventure, a new mission.

_I just wonder who all those other kids and creatures were,_ Nicole thought, as she began to write in the notebook. _Now how did that prophecy start again..._

* * *

--- 

THIS CHAPTER'S NG:

_The First Mewtwo?_

_---_

Mewtwo turned its head around, gazing thoughtfully at each of the figures assembled. Its body began to glow a soft blue, as it opened its mouth slightly. Yet it didn't speak, nor did it move from its place. Tai instead heard a voice within his head that echoed in a hollow manner. He could tell that everyone could hear the voice, the voice of the creature before them.

- _You who stand here... remember these words. - _

Its eyes began to glow blue as well.

- _I was not born a pokemon, I was created. And my creators have and betrayed me. So... I stand alone. - _

The entire area began to glow with a pale, blue light. Tai turned to the side to see all the strange creatures, plus the last girl and the small draconic creature, all stiff with some sort of fear that froze their movements. For moment, there was silence, before a simultaneous sound of roars, yelps, screams, and shouts echoed over the entire area. Watching in shock, Tai saw as the entire group of monsters turned and began floating/running as fast as they could away from Mewtwo. The girl gave a spooked look at the catlike creature, before turning and running away with them.

Mewtwo stood where it had stood earlier, its mouth slightly open in surprise. - _That was...not my original intent... - _

Tai sweatdropped.

(A/N: Pokefans, I hope you recognized the quote. Yes, I'm aware that that movie came out about 5 years ago.)


	3. The Adventure Begins

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or Digimon, but I do own my character Nicole, the dragonet Stellath, and the entire Middle World. As well as a bunch of other random stuff.

A/N: Well, I worked hard to try and put this up. There were definite major changes in things here...and since I originally wrote this chapter before 02 came out (rather, before I'd seen the end of the first season and I'd just seen the big Tai/Matt fight in the Dark Masters arc), I had the characters all characterized with their 01 personalities. So there's been some reworking and they've all matured a good deal. And I've fit things in so it works with the entire Digimon storyline. As a note, Nicole lives in the same world as the Digidestined, which of course makes things a bit hard (if it makes it easier to visualize her, think Asian)...and I can speak Japanese (poorly, I might add), but as the characters can understand each other, there's no need to use it. But trust me, the last chapter will probably have plenty of it... Also originally, I was quite obsessed with Anne McCaffery's "Dragonriders of Pern" books, so Stellath was originally based from that. But later on, the relevance to that became obsolete and unused, so I've now created a dragon world that Stellath comes from...and that world is involved heavily in this story now.

Oh, and the words on Matt's shirt are intentional. It's the title of his 01 image song. (Yay!)

* * *

**Chapter 2**

_The Adventure Begins_

_---_

"Mom, Kari and I are going down to the park," Tai called out, as he put on his sneakers and adjusted the goggles on his head. Glancing down at his attire, he saw his khaki shorts and blue t-shirt with a bright orange star on the front. Yup, all ready in case a weird portal opened up to another world... or something like that. He nodded to Kari, who was also putting on her shoes in the threshold of the apartment, and the two tried to act as casually as they could.

"Be back before dinner!" their mom called out. "I'm making fungus cookies!"

Tai inwardly winced. "Okay," he called, trying to sound enthusiastic. He was not looking forward to the cookies.

Kari, in her favorite pink shorts and yellow tank top, carefully hefted her backpack onto her back, and both she and Tai winced when they heard a light squeal from inside it. "Kari, why am I in here?!" a voice cried out.

"Shhh, we just need to sneak you down to the park, that's all!" Kari said quietly to Gatomon, who was inside the pack. She adjusted her pink hairclip and the white bandanna around her neck.

"Then why does Agumon get to walk around?"

Tai opened the door, carefully motioning Kari and her protesting partner in the backpack out of the apartment. Then he purposely dropped his mini-telescope on the floor, bending down to pick it back up while doing his best to seem like nothing was wrong.

The signal given, a small figure in a dark poncho practically flew out the door from around the corner, making loud clacking sounds with its claws against the tiled floor. With another wince from the loud racket Agumon had made, Tai quickly jumped out and closed the door before his mom could make an inquiry as to what the noise was.

Tai and Kari looked at each other, and sighed. They'd forgotten the troubles of transporting the digimon without alerting anyone to their presence. After all, it wouldn't do too well if someone saw the digimon and completely freaked out, causing chaos and confusion.

"Agumon doesn't fit in a backpack unless he's Koromon," Kari said quietly to the backpack. "Think of it this way – you're lucky because you get to be carried."

"But I don't want to be carried in a backpack!"

Kari looked extremely apologetic. "I'm sorry, Gatomon. As soon as we get to the park, I'll carry you normally, okay?"

The backpack squirmed, and Tai could tell Kari felt very bad about the entire situation.

Earlier, after both Tai and Kari had confirmed the entire dream with each other, Tai had called the other six Digidestined and asked them to all meet down at the playground at the park. He'd been surprised at the reception he'd received from everyone; they had all been excited to come together again as a team, complete with the digimon. Even TK was taking the subway all the way to Odaiba just for the meeting.

It was their first plan of action, to meet up together and figure out part of what was going on. Then they had to find that last person.

Inwardly, Tai thought wryly, _This might turn out to be an Eighth Child type of deal again..._

-----

Matt calmly walked down the street, in jeans and a light green t-shirt with the words "Walk on the Edge" in English printed on the front (At least, that's what he'd been told by Mimi, who was working hard on her English skills, seeing as she was moving to America in less than a week), and a backpack on his back. Black cut-off gloved hands in his pockets, he fingered his harmonica in one pocket and his pocketknife in the other, trying to keep his mind relatively blank as he did his best to act casual. A couple of adults had already given him strange looks concerning the small "person" walking next to him, and he didn't really need any more extra attention.

Gabumon, who was wearing a large poncho with a rain hat on top, plus a scarf and other accessories to hide his horn, was trying his best not to attract attention, and failing somewhat miserably. He'd taken to not making eye contact with anyone, and was now spending a lot of time staring down at Matt's shoes.

Matt could tell Gabumon was feeling both awkward and miserable. "Don't worry, we're almost at the park," he said quietly.

"I'm all right Matt... I'd just forgotten about this disguise issue in the Human world," Gabumon replied.

Matt sighed. He inwardly wished he was either bigger, or Gabumon could de-digivolve to Tsunomon, just so that he could carry the digimon and spare his friend from embarrassment. Then he could easily run to the park, and meet up with Tai and everyone else.

The entire meeting was probably going to end up like a huge reunion, with lots of nostalgic comments from everyone and a huge feeling of team spirit. It had been a long time since everyone had come together, especially with the digimon, and with a new sort of mission that Tai had insisted was the case, it would seem even more like the time two years earlier when they'd all traveled as a team to save the world.

Thinking on Tai's request for the meeting, Matt thought back to the dream. He remembered Mewtwo, and the way its eyes seemed to glow blue. In fact, it was the same kind of blue glow that his crest had emitted whenever it activated. He smiled slightly, remembering the shape and figure of his crest, wistfully wishing he still had both the physical incarnation of it, and the inner power that had rested in his heart for nearly a year before having to relinquish it for the sake of the Digiworld. Somehow, the two glows were similar, though Matt had a feeling Mewtwo was not someone who fit the characteristic of "Friendship".

Crossing the street, Matt and Gabumon entered the park. After a few minutes of walking, when they were safely out of view of the street, Matt stopped, grinning at Gabumon.

Gabumon immediately tore off all the extra clothing he'd been wearing, leaving it for Matt to stuff into his backpack. "Ah, much better!" Gabumon sighed, looking over himself and his blue fur coat. "It's so hot under all those layers!"

"It's better than being frozen," Matt reminded Gabumon, as he stuffed the last of the clothes into his pack. Gabumon smiled slightly and nodded. Both still remembered the incident in the Digiworld where Matt had nearly frozen to death, and then Gabumon had gotten sick trying to take care of him.

Grinning at each other, the two began their long trek through the park to the playground where Tai had asked them to meet.

-----

It was past dinner, and Nicole was tired of trying to figure out the prophecy and the dream while sitting in the house. With a sigh, she called out to her mom from her room. "Mom, I'm gonna go down to the park for a couple hours."

The park was quite a long walk away, but Nicole knew her mom would let her go. If Nicole was an ordinary girl, maybe not, but Nicole wasn't exactly normal. After bringing home seven strange and somewhat dangerous creatures from a school camping trip, who were all loyal to Nicole, both of her parents had relaxed a good deal on security issues. It had also taken them a while to get used to the presence of all the pokémon as well.

She glanced around her room, seeing that only Haunter and Stellath were present, and sighing, she walked over to the door and poked her head out. "Team, we're going to the park!"

With a loud shout of "Hooray!" from Charizard, the remaining five pokémon quickly scampered over to Nicole's room, anticipating a great time outdoors.

Nicole smiled, as she held out her pokéballs, and all six pokémon literally jumped into them in bursts of light. The team always looked forward to any excursion outside, especially after having traveled on the road for three years and then suddenly being cooped up inside. It was already bad enough that there were so many random people around the country who insisted on seeing monsters roaming the countryside, and having an extra seven that liked to hang around her house would only cause a lot of trouble.

It had been like that ever since they'd returned from the Pokéworld – restless pokémon, restless Stellath, and restless Nicole. Not to mention that Nicole had been pretty mad when she'd returned home, mostly about two things: The fact that no time had passed at home since she'd left, and also the fact that she'd evidently de-aged three years when she came back, forcing her to relive three years of both mental and physical change. Puberty during her pokémon journey had been bad enough. She'd been extremely irked to have to go through it again.

The pokémon were lucky – they hadn't de-evolved or anything. But after a couple months in the house, they certainly acted as though they'd gotten younger... even Stellath, who hadn't changed at all.

The entire group had come to the conclusion that the switching worlds thing was very confusing. Evidently, there were two Nicole's, two of each pokémon, and two of Stellath who were roaming around, one in Nicole's home world and one in the pokémon world. They were all just living three years simultaneously. The entire situation was enough to make one's head spin.

Hooking all six balls onto her belt, Nicole checked her backpack for the usual supplies. Then, with a nod to Stellath, the small dragon jumped in, and Nicole zipped it up. Then she looked over herself.

She felt like a road trainer again. Rolled up jeans, purple t-shirt, green vest, and blue bandanna holding back hair – the same type of outfit she'd worn during her pokémon adventure. Her mental intuition told her that a long journey was ahead, so she'd dressed for a long journey, in the same way she had traveling in the Pokéworld.

She really liked that mental intuition. It was almost always right.

Carefully hefting her backpack onto her back so as not to accidentally injure Stellath, Nicole walked out of the room and over to the door, before slipping her grey sneakers on. Then she left the house.

The first thing she did was hide in the threshold area of her front door. She wanted to try something, having not had much of an opportunity to do anything like it for the last three years. Quickly glancing around to make sure there was no one on her street, and that her parents weren't looking out the window wondering what the heck she was doing, she closed her eyes, and concentrated on an image of the park.

Nicole felt a glimmer of energy, and a quick brush of wind. She smiled, letting the setting sun shine down on her, and concentrated harder. Her teleport was working.

Being a strong psychic definitely had its perks.

Hopefully.

-----

Still walking through the park, Matt was beginning to feel unsure of what he was doing. They'd been walking in the right direction, but he still couldn't see the playground. It was almost as if he was walking around in circles, leading poor Gabumon in a trail of confusion. It was as though something were keeping him magnetically attracted to some area. It certainly didn't help that his Digivice wasn't picking up any signals from the other kids.

Then both he and Gabumon stopped, as they noticed the air in front of them begin to shimmer. There was a quick warp, a glimmer of energy, and then suddenly a black-haired girl his age materialized in front of him.

Matt just stared. He'd seen quite a lot in his lifetime, but he'd never seen someone appear out of nowhere.

The girl opened her eyes, blinked, and looked around in confusion. She seemed to take note of the bright afternoon sun, the tall buildings, and then him. She stared back at Matt, then to Gabumon, then back at Matt again.

Gabumon blinked, then looked up at Matt. All three of them began gazing at each other with looks of incredulity.

Then the girl spoke. "What happened? What is that?" she pointed weakly at Gabumon, before continuing in a bewildered voice. "And...what the heck am I doing here?!"

Matt noticed that she seemed to speaking a completely different language, but for some enormously strange reason, he could understand her. He also recognized the language. "Here's another question – How did you get here? And why are you speaking English?!"

The girl blinked, staring. "And...that's Japanese, isn't it? You're speaking Japanese?!"

"Like all normal residents of Japan, yes, I'm speaking Japanese."

"Then how come I can understand you?!"

"Good question! I can't speak or read English, so I don't know what's going on!"

The girl's eyes suddenly widened in strange realization. "Wait a sec, you're a Japanese person? This is Japan?!"

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Yes," he said somewhat disdainfully, wondering if the girl in front of him were sane or not. There was also the fact that she'd materialized out of nothing.

There was a pregnant pause, and then the girl began repeatedly smacking herself in the head. "I'm an idiot, I'm an idiot, I'm an idiot..." she kept muttering to herself.

Matt looked down at Gabumon, who only shrugged apologetically. Then trying to calm himself down, he asked as politely as he could in his mind state, "Can I ask how you got here?"

The girl turned to him, grinning awkwardly as seemed to realize something. "Um...you saw me get here?"

Both Gabumon and Matt nodded blankly.

She quickly glanced at Gabumon, before sighing, seemingly making a decision in her mind. "Well...I guess I can't hide it, but first off, I'm American. I was trying to teleport to the park...I didn't mean to teleport all the way across the Pacific Ocean..."

At the word teleport, Matt just felt all sense of reality implode on itself. Teleport? American? Pacific Ocean? What?

Overcome with confusion, both Matt and Gabumon simultaneously sat down, staring at the also equally confused girl in front of them. The only good thing was that she didn't completely stare and freak out at the sight of Gabumon. However, the situation only became more chaotic.

A little golden, draconic head suddenly peeped out of her backpack. The small dragon looked around, somewhat feline eyes surveying the scene, before pushing its way out of the pack, unfurling its wings, and leaping into the air. The girl turned when she realized what had happened, and a look of shock and horror came to her face.

- It's safe, there's one with him too! - Matt suddenly heard. He shook his head, wildly glancing around to see who had spoken, but he didn't see anyone.

The girl sighed, seeming slightly relieved, but only momentarily, as something on her belt activated and exploded with bright light. Although the word "digivice" came to mind, it certainly wasn't what was glowing. Matt shielded his eyes, and when the light faded, his jaw dropped as he stared at the huge orange dragon that now stood between him and the girl.

It gave a roar, eyeing him warily, before the girl suddenly gave a yelp and ran forward, grabbing its arm. "What are you doing?!?!" she yelled.

The dragon stopped, gently flapping its large, blue wings. It gave an indignant snort and gazed over at Matt and Gabumon, giving a strange distinct impression of grinning. It opened its mouth, and it emitted a low, rumbling growl, towards the girl.

The girl gave the dragon an extremely strange glare. "You had better be joking," she commented sharply, before leaving the dragon chuckling.

Gabumon suddenly piped up, staring at the dragon. "I certainly hope he's joking, I taste bad!"

While Matt stared at Gabumon, the girl did as well. "It talks?!" she yelped in surprise.

All five of the motley of humans and monsters took the next minute to stare at each other in complete and utter shock. Finally, they all gave out one huge collective "HUH?!"

Sighing, Matt finally got up off of the ground, smiling slightly at Gabumon. Then he politely bowed to the girl. "I guess we need some introducing. My name is Ishida Yamato, nice to meet you. Call me Matt."

The girl smiled as well, holding out a hand. "Last name before first here in Japan right? It's nice to meet you too, Matt. My name is Nicole."

-----

Tai paced around the playground, kicking at random bark dust chips and feeling extremely impatient. Then finally, with an exasperated throw of arms into the air, he cried out, "Where is he?!"

Everyone else at the playground winced.

The entire group of Digidestined and digimon were all present at the playground, which was thankfully vacant otherwise. The only two who hadn't arrived were Matt and Gabumon, who were certainly taking their time getting to the meeting place.

Sitting on the monkey bars in jean shorts and a red sleeveless shirt, Sora sighed, waving her legs in the air in front of her and watching as one of her sneakers fell off. She ignored it. "I don't want to sound mean, but I think we should all start discussing about that dream last night."

Tai let his brow furrow in thought, banging his head slightly against a metal tetherball pole. He wanted to wait for his best friend, but he still had the interests of the other six pairs in mind. Glancing over at TK on the swings, with Patamon on his head, who also seemed worried, he knew he wasn't alone in conflicting thoughts. But as the leader of the group, he was the one they all looked to for certain decisions.

Sighing, he made up his mind. "Okay, let's all discuss ideas and plans. We can fill in Matt as soon as he gets here, he'll have plenty to say," he said finally, turning back to the others. He nodded towards Izzy, who was leaning against the ladder of the monkey bars. The redheaded computer kid was practically the strategist of the group, and tended to give everyone the information they needed for anything.

Izzy, in a yellow t-shirt and orange vest, spoke up, taking his hands out of the pockets of his cargo pants. "All right. So last night, all of us had the same dream, with the only difference being that the end nightmarish part had changed for each one of us. Although I don't exactly find it logical, I believe this dream has something to do with the future, being as there are studies which show recurring dreams or simultaneous dreams coming true."

"So you mean I have to drown in quicksand?" Joe asked somewhat pessimistically, from his place on the seesaw. He brushed away a little of the blue hair hanging past his chin, sighing as he unzipped his denim jacket, showing a plain white t-shirt. He'd rolled the sleeves back, but the sun was hotter than he'd expected. He'd even worn black slacks, and now he was inwardly smacking himself, dressing for the wrong weather.

Izzy winced as he heard Joe's comment. "I guess so. I'm not too excited about suffocating in a sandstorm either, but then again, I don't even know if my theory is correct."

Tentomon tapped Izzy on the shoulder, and reminded him, "Don't forget Izzy, the second part."

"I'm getting to that. Besides the entire premonition thing, which I still think is preposterous despite the fact I'm bringing it up, there's the entire issue with Mewtwo and all those other creatures we saw. Tentomon here insists that they're not digimon and he's never seen them before."

"But it's true! I couldn't recognize any of them!" Palmon brought up, indignantly. The other digimon present all nodded in agreement.

Kari, sitting on a swing next to TK, with a relieved Gatomon in her arms, brought a hand to her chin, thinking. "If they're not digimon, then what are they? Real monsters?"

Gatomon blinked up at her partner. "But us digimon are real monsters!"

"You know what I mean, Gatomon."

Then Mimi spoke up next, in a pink halter top and purple skort, from where she sat at the bottom of a slide. "But besides all those other monsters, there was also that one girl too. We can't forget her." She reached down and adjusted one of her boots, before flipping her braid back.

"You think it's another Kari type of situation?" Gomamon asked from where he sat in Joe's arms.

Everyone turned to Kari. The said girl cringed a little, remembering what had happened the last time there was a massive search in the Real world. "If it is, I hope that girl's not being hunted by some sort of evil," she answered, swinging her legs a little, which resulted in her being propelled back and forth a bit.

TK nodded, agreeing with her, in khaki shorts and a collared green t-shirt, as well as his characteristic bucket hat. "That's a good point. Maybe we should try to find this girl first, then we can figure out this entire dream thing. Although, I have to admit, it was pretty spooky..."

Remembering the dream he'd had, Tai suddenly came up with another topic for discussion. "By the way, what kinds of things happened at the end of your dreams? I was falling into some sort of bottomless canyon abyss... thing."

Izzy sighed, absentmindedly fumbling with the strap on his laptop case (conveniently in a backpack type of carrier). "I kind of already said this, but I was in a giant sandstorm and couldn't breathe. You know, like what happened that one time in the Digiworld while we were fighting with MetalSeadramon."

Everyone except for Joe, Mimi, Palmon, and Gomamon winced. They certainly remembered that incident – it had left them all unconscious and nearly dead, whereupon they'd barely been saved from a premature death by the last four said members of the group.

Joe brought his legs up onto the seesaw, staring down at his loafers. "I mentioned mine too. Quicksand. Definitely not a pleasant way to die," he said nonchalantly, as though disasters such as that were commonplace and nothing special.

Sora shook her head. "You make it seem so normal," she groaned, as she kicked her other foot out, sending the other sneaker flying to the ground. This time she winced, and decided she would get both of her shoes later. "Well, in mine, there was this giant monster that seemed to be made out of electricity or something, and it was shooting bolts of lightning at me."

The others blinked. "That's definitely _not_ normal," Patamon commented, adjusting his place on top of TK's head.

TK looked up towards Patamon, though he couldn't actually see his partner. "Well, was yours normal?"

"Um, if you call sitting in glass tube slowly filling up with this weird liquid normal..."

At that, all the other digimon gave a cry of shock. Their respective partners all looked at them in concern, wondering why the digimon had reacted in that way to Patamon's dream end. They soon found out.

"I had the exact same ending!" Agumon yelled.

He was met with a surprised stare from all the other digimon. "Me too!" was the simultaneous reply.

Everyone looked at each other for a brief moment, shocked into silence.

Izzy blinked, then began rubbing his temples. "This makes no logical sense," he muttered.

Sora grinned at the redhead. "Who said anything relating to the Digiworld made logical sense?"

"Izzy did," Mimi shook her head, sighing with a somewhat bemused look on her face. "I guess with that note, I should tell you my dream ending." She took a somewhat deep breath before opening her mouth again. "There was this huge snake serpent thing that had caught up to me and wrapped itself around me. Then it opened its mouth and there were these like, huge decameter sized fangs..."

The others looked at each other, completely understanding why the dream had scared Mimi so badly. Not only was it an exceptionally frightening situation, but Mimi also had a fear of snakes.

With that, the five elder pairs of the group turned to the last two who hadn't spoken of their dream endings yet. While TK stayed silent, Kari fidgeted a little. The two glanced at each other, seemingly speaking without words to one another, until finally Kari sighed. "Okay, well mine... I was falling down a gigantic waterfall."

The others nodded to each other, finally turning to TK, who had been very quiet the entire time. TK looked down at some bark dust chips, seemingly unsure of everyone's reactions if he told his. He glanced over to Kari, who nodded with encouragement, and up, to where Patamon was smiling. Then he spoke, "Well, I actually saw everyone's dream endings in mine..."

While some people yelped, "What?!", many just stared at TK in amazement.

TK sighed slightly, before continuing. "Yeah, that's what happened. I saw everyone's. Matt's was actually being caught in a forest fire, and Gabumon's had to do with fighting some electrical monster thing, kinda similar to Sora's. There was also all those other weird monsters, they had dream endings that had to do with fighting a lot also, only these weird black dragon things besides just the electric monsters... and that last girl had a snow avalanche. Then came mine, where I was... strapped to something, I think, and Myotismon was standing over me. He was laughing for some reason..."

There was a bit of stunned silence. For a moment, everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to think. It had been known for a long time that TK was somewhat special, ever since Angemon had first digivolved, and the fact he had seen everyone's dream endings, plus his own, further proved it. Plus, it meant that something very strange was going to happen...

Then Izzy, who'd been thinking ahead of everyone, burst out, "But Myotismon is dead!" Everyone looked at him, and Izzy sighed, regaining his composure. "I'm just saying, if it's true that these dream endings all have something to do with the future, then why is Myotismon in TK's? We destroyed Myotismon two years ago, it's impossible for him to still be alive."

Everyone glanced at each other, thinking over the possibilities of what could possibly happen if Myotismon was involved in whatever was going on. But before anyone could make another comment, Izzy popped back in again. "Then again, digimon never really die, so I guess it is possible...he could have been reformatted or something..."

Before Izzy could continue on explaining theories to everyone, like he frequently did, Tai, who had been glancing at his digivice every few moments, suddenly stood up straight and with an exasperated sigh, yelled, "Finally!"

Everyone turned to him, and he just grinned. "Matt's finally here, I've got his digivice signal," he explained, seeming extremely relieved.

While everyone nodded, happy, Sora jumped off the monkey bars, wincing as the bark dust chips dug in through her socks. "I'm going to go over to him and find out what took so long," she said concernedly, as she picked up one sneaker, and started hopping over to retrieve the other. Biyomon flew over and picked up the shoe first, handing it to a thankful Sora.

Seemingly, everyone was equally worried though, as everyone got up from their places to approach Matt and find out what had taken so long for him to arrive.

-----

"So Gabumon, you're a digimon?" Nicole asked the dog-like creature, as the entire group walked through the park towards the playground. Having explained everyone's situations to each other, they were now making some small talk while going to meet with the rest of the Digidestined.

Gabumon nodded. "Yes. And there are tons more digimon in the Digiworld."

Matt also spoke. "Yeah, and the other seven kids also have digimon partners too. We're our own team here."

Nicole smiled, looking up at the sky for a moment. "It must be great, having other kids you can relate to with digimon..."

Matt glanced at her. "You don't? You mean there aren't other pokémon trainers or masters around your area?"

Nicole shook her head. "No. I don't know if any others exist in the world besides me. And I would know if there too, because it is kinda hard to hide six large pokémon..." She turned her head to the large crowd behind them.

After Charizard's unexpected entrance, Nicole had reluctantly let out the rest of her team. Now, besides Stellath, Gabumon, and Charizard, Scyther, Blastoise, Venusaur, Haunter, and Raichu were all walking along behind them, chattering with each other. Gabumon stepped back a little to talk with the many 'mons, while Nicole and Matt watched, both grinning. Stellath, perched on Charizard's head, kept nodding vigorously, as she listened to the entire giant 'mon conversation.

"They're excited," Nicole stated blandly, though still smiling. "They haven't had any other 'mons to talk to for about three years."

Matt sighed. "It must be hard," he commented, watching them. "It's probably weird for Stellath too, as she hasn't seen any of her race in years..."

Nicole let her gaze fall to the ground. She solemnly froze for a moment, remembering words Stellath had spoken, the first time they'd met. The poor confused dragon, who had nowhere to go, who had been shoved out of her home world as a fugitive. Nicole had taken Stellath under her wing, and from their similar scenarios, being in a world different from their own, they'd formed a special kind of mind bond...

She glanced over to Matt, who was still walking, though watching Gabumon out of the corner of his eye. She'd had to explain the entire concept of pokémon, of being a pokémon trainer and master, and even her psychic abilities, though she knew she would probably have to explain it again to the others Matt knew. Matt and Gabumon had taken it very well, and had in turn, explained to her about digimon. She still knew almost nothing about how Matt and Gabumon had met in the first place – Matt had told her that he would wait to explain until after they met up with the rest of the Digidestined.

Somehow, Nicole simply knew that Matt was a person she could trust. She could sense that he'd been through a lot of adventures, and had a very close bond with Gabumon. And from her sense, she had a feeling that she would be able to trust the other Digidestined as well. Despite language barriers, she thought it would be fun if she could become good friends with all eight of the Digidestined, through that trust. After all, she didn't have any real close friends...at least not in this world...

At that point, Nicole noticed something blinking on Matt's belt. "Uh, Matt, I think your digi-thing is blinking."

"Digivice," Matt automatically corrected, glancing over to his belt. "We're getting close to the others." Then he unclipped it from his belt, bringing it up and eyeing it carefully. He raised an eyebrow. "Then again, they're also getting close to us too..."

Trying not to seem rude, Nicole carefully edged over to get a good look at the digivice screen. Peering at it, she saw a blinking red dot in the center of the screen, which she supposed was their current location. Quickly approaching it was an array of seven more red dots, all clustered closely together.

It was about then that she sensed the presence of another group. She also heard the familiar noise of pounding feet and the sounds of speaking, which she could still understand, even though it was all in Japanese. She shook her head. Everything was becoming more and more confusing by the minute.

Then a large group of kids – or rather, three teenagers and four preteens – ran into the clearing area, followed by seven small monsters – digimon, Nicole decided. She looked over the group as they stopped dead, her mind registering that these kids had to be the Digidestined, with their partners. She glanced at Matt, who nodded in confirmation and clipped his digivice back onto his belt, seemingly reading her mind. Grinning, she raised her right hand waved at the group, completely unaffected by the presence of seven digimon.

The group seemed somewhat more shocked, having stopped dead in their tracks. Nicole blinked, and carefully followed their gaze to the large group of pokémon, who were all blinking and smiling in amusement at the humans. She momentarily wondered why the group had reacted so strangely to the pokémon, since they had digimon with them, and then had to mentally remind herself that in this world, normal people didn't have monsters accompanying them places. She guessed that seeing the humans and digimon together had almost given her the thought that she might be going to the Pokéworld again.

Then one of the boys, who seemed about her age and was wearing goggles, gave a shout of surprise as he pointed directly at Charizard. "Whoa, I recognize that monster! It was in the dream!"

While the others began commenting to each other, all agreeing with the goggle wearing boy and staring in amazement at the pokémon and Stellath, and also glancing at Nicole every few moments, Charizard narrowed his eyes and huffed. "Hey, I recognize you too kid... and do ya' realize that I'm standing here and can understand everything you're saying?!"

Nicole sighed. It was relatively obvious that the goggle-headed boy could not understand Charizard... or any of the other pokémon for that matter.

She glanced at Matt, who was giving her an apologetic look. Then Matt nodded, walking up to the others, Gabumon following him. Nicole decided to sit back and listen, being as that she didn't know any of the other humans and digimon besides Matt and Gabumon, and also because of the somewhat irked expressions of the pokémon.

Stellath took flight from Charizard's head, and carefully landed on Nicole's shoulder. – We're a pretty conspicuous group, huh? – she commented, cocking her small head to one side.

Nicole shrugged, letting Stellath bob up and down on her shoulder. – Well, we can't exactly help it, can we? – she spoke psychically and privately to Stellath. Thinking slightly, she added, – Then again, I guess the Digidestined have the same problem... –

About then, she felt a sudden vibration in the air. Narrowing her eyes, Nicole glanced up around, trying to sense the source of the vibration, as she faintly recognized the feeling it gave her. A glance at the pokémon's expressions told her that they also felt the vibrating air, and faintly recognized it for what it was. A subtle tightening of claws on her shoulder told her Stellath could also feel it.

Nicole had felt the vibrations a few times in the past three years, but had never been able to reach or sense the source before the vibrations stopped. She'd only managed to encounter the source of vibration four times in her life, three of them by accident, the last through a sudden flaring of psychic powers...

The source of vibration was a portal to another world.

In the back of her mind, she remembered Mewtwo's words. _Find the Middle World._ Her inner senses told her that the portal creating the vibration was the key to the whatever the Middle World was...

She closed her eyes, letting herself release all thoughts and focus on nothing but the vibrations. And she mentally began searching for the portal.

-----

Matt grinned as TK practically flew at him, and the two hugged briefly before separating. It didn't matter that they were two years older, that both of them had matured a good deal, and that TK was really very tall for his age and stood only five inches shorter than Matt. They were still brothers who didn't see each other often due to their family's living arrangements, and any opportunity they had to see each other, they valued greatly. Due to TK having grown up somewhat, the two were able to travel and see each other much more often than they had previously. Plus, TK had told him that their mom was debating on whether to move to Odaiba or not, which meant that if all went well, he and TK would be living in the same city again for the first time in six years.

After separating from the hug, Matt glanced over to where the other six pairs of Digidestined and partner stood. He'd expected the group to be somewhat annoyed and irritated, wondering why he had been so late, and was slightly surprised to find everyone grinning at him instead.

"Awesome Matt! You found that girl from the dream, that's why you were so late!" Tai grinned, pumping a fist into the air in happiness. Seemingly, all previous irritation had vanished with the sighting of Nicole and the pokémon.

Matt shrugged. "Yeah, I ran into her wandering around down here. Her name is Nicole, she's American."

Mimi immediately spoke up, excited and overjoyed. "That's great! I can really practice my English now and know what it's like in America!"

Palmon blinked and looked up at her partner. "Are you suddenly really interested in America or something Mimi?"

"Uh...no...my family's moving there in about a week..."

At that, all the humans sighed. They'd already given Mimi a goodbye party a few days earlier, and were all going to miss her greatly. But they would still keep in touch – after all, they were Digidestined together.

Matt thought about the strange language conversion between English and Japanese, and wincing, shook his head. "Well...there's a lot of really strange things going on, language being part of it, and other such things as monsters, psychic powers, all tied up in that dream we all had last night. Although, about the Middle World..."

There was a slight pause as everyone fell silent, contemplating everything Matt had said, plus the mention of the Middle World. Everyone remembered Mewtwo speaking of it in the dream, and although the image of the Digiworld came to mind, they had a feeling it wasn't where the problem was.

Then the pause was interrupted by a sudden shaking feeling and vibration in the air. With a loud collective gasp, the group turned, looking around and trying to find out where it was coming from. It felt similar to an earthquake, which Japan had a lot of, and at Tai's nod, the entire group jumped down close to the ground. While Gatomon grabbed onto Kari for support, who grabbed onto TK, who reached out for the closest thing to him and simultaneously grabbed both Patamon and Matt at the same time, the others glanced over to the pokémon, who had also followed the Digidestined's example and come down close to the ground, and then over to Nicole.

Matt, who'd just fallen over due to having to support two humans and three digimon (Gabumon had grabbed on too), noticed Nicole with her eyes closed and seemingly concentrating though looking serene and tranquil. Stellath on her shoulder, also in the same state, slowly unfurled her wings and let out a small cry.

Nicole opened her eyes slowly, though they looked strangely blank, as though she was in a trance. With half-lidded eyes, she calmly raised her right hand, and pointed straight in front of her, into what seemed like thin air. But Matt could sense something too, and he tried to follow the direction she was indicating towards.

He noticed as both Kari and TK widened their eyes, looking towards where Nicole was pointing. The two children nodded at each other, before both holding up their digivices. "You guys too!" TK called out to everyone.

Simultaneously, all eight of the Digidestined raised their digivices towards where Nicole was pointing. Something was becoming more clear, as their digivices began to glow, shining towards the spot. The air seemed to be pulsing, as the digivices shone, and soon everyone could see what Kari and TK had seen moments earlier.

A shining vortex of bright light swirled in the air, illuminated by shadows both within and behind it. The gentle tendrils of light seemed to reach out towards the entire group of humans, digimon, pokémon, and single dragonet, urging them to enter.

Nicole slowly nodded, still in a trance, as she raised a hand towards the vortex. Her eyes began to glow blue, as she stared into it, and slowly, the glow in her eyes came to surround everyone, as the portal grew brighter. What everyone recognized was the kind of glow she emitted...it was the same glow Mewtwo had created in the dream...

Then everything grew blindingly bright, as the shaking of the ground grew violent. It suddenly lurched, as though it was throwing everyone forward, and then the entire feeling of gravity faded, leaving the sensation of floating. Then the light covered everything in a gentle, warm breeze.

And then there was nothing.

* * *

This Chapter's NG: 

_The Barbeque, Courtesy of Charizard_

The girl sighed, but only momentarily, as something on her belt activated and exploded with bright light. Although the word "digivice" came to mind, it certainly wasn't what was glowing. Matt shielded his eyes, and when the light faded, his jaw dropped as he stared at the huge orange dragon that now stood between him and the girl.

It gave a roar, eyeing him warily, before the girl suddenly gave a yelp and ran forward, grabbing its arm. "What are you doing?!?!" she yelled.

The dragon eyed the girl, seemingly grinning, before pulling its arm away from her. It turned towards Matt, with a strange gleam in its eye. Matt glanced over to Gabumon, and the two of them simultaneously gulped.

The girl's eyes widened. "CHARIZARD - "

Charizard opened its mouth wide, and gave a roar, before its trainer could do anything.

FOOM.

Once the flames had died away, the girl stared wide-eyed at the blackened Matt and Gabumon. With an extremely apologetic look at them, she jumped up over to Charizard and pulled his head down by the knobs, shaking it vigorously with a very angry gleam in her eyes.

Matt and Gabumon, too fried to care about anything, just fell over and fainted.


	4. Explanations in a New World

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, Pokemon, or anything that doesn't seem to be mine... however, the Middle World, Stellath, and all seemingly original things do.

A/N: Well, it's a really long chapter to introductions and explanations... to both introduce the main story premise and also help those who are not familiar with one or the other of Digimon or Pokemon. In the original, it was much the same. However some differences... the entire fish scene did NOT happen. Instead, two characters began arguing and then the OC ran off after getting a bit ticked off. I think the fish idea is better, plus it introduces some foreshadowing... heh heh heh.

I'm starting to think that I should just write an entire story based off of Nicole's pokemon adventure, since there's so much behind it all. Some of it will be revealed throughout this story, but there's a lot to it. Let me know if you think this is a good idea!

If Nicole seems Mary Sue-ish, it's because... well, I originally wrote this in 6th grade, so she practically was a Mary Sue (and I am now in 11th grade as I rewrite this, so...) I am trying desperately to not make her one in this rewrite... but I also have to introduce a lot of aspects to her character before she can lapse into a more passive role.

Okay, I've talked way too much. Read and enjoy!

**

* * *

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**Chapter 3**

_Explanations in a New World_

She felt warmth from above shining down upon her, and she calmly stayed still, savoring the feeling of lush gentle heat. She kept her eyes closed, as she slowly registered the fact that she was lying down, with something soft and grainy rubbing against her face. In the distance, she could hear the roar of ocean waves as they crashed against a shore, and the cries of a few seabirds.

Somehow, though it was extremely comforting, the situation did not feel quite right.

"Damn, is she still out?" came Blastoise's deep rumbling tenor. "Stellath?"

"No she's up. It's weird that you can understand me chirping..." came a long series of whistles and squawks, which strangely enough, she could understand.

Something sharp poked her in the back. She ignored it, not wanting to get up.

"Well, she's not getting up..." Scyther's voice spoke gently, seeming somewhat concerned.

"Are you sure she's all right?" a young boy's voice spoke. She couldn't recognize it, but it sounded Japanese, like earlier...and she could understand it.

"She'll be fine. It's just a combination of an energy surge and sleep deprivation" Stellath chirped again.

"Like the amount of sleep I'll be getting next year..." said another boy in a somewhat resigned manner, much older than the last one but also speaking in Japanese.

There was a strange cackle, and another voice spoke up, Japanese and yet not human. "Don't worry about it Joe, that's next year, right? A whole year away?"

"Still, she should probably to wake up."

She felt herself being poked in the back again.

"Come on Nicole, wake up," Scyther's voice lulled soothingly.

She just couldn't get up...

"Aah, you guys take too long. Thundershock!"

BZZTT!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!" Nicole yelled as she bolted straight up, the electricity running through her. "OKAY, I'M UP! I'M UP, I'M UP, I'M UP, STOP SHOCKING ME!"

At that, she finally opened her eyes, breathing hard as the flow of electricity stopped while her skin tingled all over. The first thing she saw was the concerned faces of all the pokémon plus Stellath, with Raichu directly in the center. Raichu smiled innocently.

Nicole shook her head, trying to get the numbness of the electricity out of her system. "Thanks for the wake up call," she mumbled, "...you make a really, really painful alarm clock..."

It was only about then that she noticed eight humans and eight digimon standing in a group behind the pokémon and staring at her in a sort of shocked and concerned manner. She blinked, wondering why they seemed so surprised, as she dazedly rubbed her temples, her mind seemingly stuck and unable to comprehend anything. She felt lightheaded and dizzy, as though she had used up a large amount of energy in a short time period. It took her about a minute to realize why the other kids and digimon were so shocked – after all, normal people didn't usually receive electric blasts as wake-up calls. And when they did, they were usually rushed to the hospital or something.

In all, the fact that Raichu had just shocked Nicole had stunned the others.

One of the girls, one her age with a large pink bird next to her, spoke haltingly, eyes wide in both astonishment and concern. "Are...are...are you okay?"

Nicole slowly nodded. "Yeah...just don't get near me for the next few minutes," she answered, noticing that her speech was somewhat slurred. Inwardly, she wondered just what had happened – the last thing she remembered was herself in a trance mode, pointing in the direction of the portal. And now...

She took the moment to look around. The entire group rested on a long beach, covered in soft white sand. The azure ocean sparkled with the sun's reflected rays as it peacefully rolled its waves onto the shore, its gentle roars echoing about the entire area. A few palm trees dotted the landscape, complete with coconuts, mangoes, and other tropical vegetation. Opposite the ocean, high up on the bank, was a flat, rocky surface, which led into the thick undergrowth of conifer trees. (Here Nicole was suddenly confused – since when did temperate zone trees grow right next to tropical ones? Even in the Pokéworld, it was considered strange.)

Yes, something had most definitely happened.

A boy with blue hair and glasses came up to her warily, pushing gently through the crowd of pokémon. He jumped back when a jolt of electricity sprung from Nicole, smiling wryly. Nicole shrugged back apologetically, bringing a couple fingers together and wincing when a light shock ran through them.

The boy nodded. "Good point, it'd be smart to wait until the shock goes away."

Another voice popped up from the group. She recognized it as Matt. "Oh Nicole, that's Joe, he wants to be a doctor."

Nicole smiled back. "Nice to meet you Joe. Um..." she looked around the entire giant motley group of humans and monsters, then at their surroundings again. "What happened? I'm supposing something happened with that portal...?"

A small seal creature next to Joe suddenly stared, and piped up before anyone else could speak. "What, you don't remember? How can you not remember glowing blue and all that crazy stuff happening with the earthquake and the portal!"

Nicole grew slightly pale. "I glowed blue?" She glanced around and saw everyone nodding. She inwardly hit herself. _I hate it when this kind of thing happens..._

However, the looks of worry in everyone's faces only grew more concerned. "You don't remember." Joe stated, staring in an exceptionally shocked manner. He moved forward, evidently to check Nicole's forehead or something.

Nicole only answered by bringing her two index fingers together again, where a bright jolt of blue electricity ran through them. Whereupon Joe immediately stopped and decided to wait a little while before checking on her, Nicole gave Raichu a pointed look. The pokémon only shrugged apologetically. "You needed it," Raichu said plaintively.

Nicole responded by groaning and placing her head into her hands, ignoring the shock that came with it.

A pause followed. Besides some shuffling of feet in the sand, an awkward silence filled the area. Nicole felt slightly uncomfortable, and glancing around, she could tell most everyone else present felt the same way. However, she felt somewhat indebted to the Digidestined now, as they were all concerned about her...and she didn't even know most of their names yet.

Suddenly, from within the group, Matt nodded and came in front of the others. "Well, I think it would help if we all knew each other's names, and who we all are, for starters," he commented, motioning mostly to Nicole, Stellath, and the pokémon. "So, for everyone who hasn't figured it out yet, or has forgotten, this is Nicole." He gestured in Nicole's direction.

Nicole resumed her calm seated position and responded by grinning and waving. "I'm a pokémon Master."

Before Matt could do anything else, a sudden roar came from the pokémon group. Charizard strutted forward, as the unofficial pokémon leader of Nicole's team, crossing his arms and looking somewhat indignant. Everyone else turned towards the flame pokémon. Charizard's presence alone commanded a good deal of respect, even if he happened to be ridiculously goofy.

"And with Nicole comes the team," Charizard announced, eyeing Nicole with a slight grin. Nicole had to smile back.

It had always been a belief of hers that she did not deserve the credit for any real battling prowess the pokémon made. Even after attaining Master status, Nicole had always considered herself as just someone helping the pokémon become stronger in both body and mind, while caring for them at the same time. Throughout their travels in the Pokéworld, Nicole had always acknowledged the members of her team whenever they won battles and tournaments, insisting that the team deserved the most acclaim for everything. In return, the team thought of Nicole as a true family member, including her in every pokédebate and decision. She was a member of their group.

The red-haired boy scratched his head, glancing interestedly at the entire group. "Well, would it be impolite to ask what you are?"

Charizard blinked, and glanced at the rest of the team, who all chuckled in unison. Venusaur took the moment to explain. "Well, we're monsters. Pocket monsters, to be exact." At the red-haired boy's confused look, Venusaur shifted his gaze over to Nicole, who sighed and calmly unhooked a pokéball from her belt, holding it out in one hand towards the larger creature. He carefully let a vine uncurl from his flower and wrapped it delicately around the ball (being careful not to touch Nicole in the process), bringing it up to where the other kids and monsters could see. "See, we can actually travel inside of these things. They're called pokéballs, and as they can fit in the pocket of a human, it only made sense that they humans decided to call us pokémon."

"Fascinating," the boy gazed at the ball in wonder, a sense of curiosity coming over his expression. "I am supposing there are different types of pokémon, all with unique abilities?"

Venusaur nodded. "Yes. That's where trainers come in," he pointedly looked at Nicole, who sighed and waved. He carefully dropped the pokéball in front of her, letting the vine retract afterwards.

Nicole only decided to stay silent as she picked it up and hooked it back onto her belt. She felt slightly like some sort of museum exhibit, as she sat where she was surrounded by her team.

"Trainers are humans that basically come in and train pokémon in the art of battling," Venusaur continued to explain. "They not only teach pokémon how to utilize their abilities, but they also take care of the pokémon they train."

"And in turn," Blastoise interjected, who along with the scholarly Venusaur, wanted to explain things a bit, "Us pokémon protect the human trainers, who travel around training the pokémon and competing in gyms and tournaments that test our abilities."

The boy nodded, but not before the small blond boy with a white bucket hat decided to speak up. "Let me guess, Nicole is considered a pokémon master because she's trained you guys exceptionally well and you've won stuff?"

The pokémon, Nicole, and Stellath all glanced at each other. – Good enough for now, - Nicole finally spoke in their heads, and the group collectively nodded.

Charizard grinned, as he decided to introduce himself. "Yeah, so anyway, I'm Charizard, I'm a fire dragon pokémon and... I really like food." He added the last comment as though it were completely matter-of-fact.

The rest of the group stifled snorts of laughter, everyone from the humans and digimon, to the other pokémon and Stellath. Nicole noticed that the boy wearing goggles gently nudged Matt with his elbow, grinning while nodding his head slightly towards the light orange dinosaur creature that was standing close by. Matt glanced at the monster and chuckled softly.

"And I'm Scyther," came another voice, feminine and smooth. Then the Digidestined and the digimon all stopped laughing when Scyther stepped up next to Charizard. The mantis pokémon noticed, and blinked in confusion. "What's wrong?" she asked, crossing her blades and unconsciously flashing them at the group.

Stellath quickly flew up over to Scyther and whispered in her ear. Scyther immediately widened her blue eyes. "Wait, I'm fine! I'm not moody or anything like Mewtwo! I'm mostly harmless! I'm just a bug type pokémon!" she cried out, raising her arms in exasperation and trying to displace any scared feelings the Digidestined and digimon had about her, although it didn't quite work due to the positioning of her blades.

"Yeah, she's really gentle and sweet," Charizard piped up. He carefully draped a muscular arm around Scyther's shoulders.

Although the Digidestined and digimon didn't notice, everyone else became somewhat surprised when Scyther didn't push Charizard away. _That's funny,_ Nicole thought, _She usually rejects him... and they were even arguing yesterday..._

Then Charizard added, "Except on the battlefield or when she's mad, considering she's also part fighting type pokémon. But she's beautiful when she's angry."

Scyther reacted by jumping up, whapping Charizard's head with the flat of her blade and pulling away with a slightly annoyed glare.

_Never mind that then..._

The other pokémon stepped up as well. "I'm Blastoise, and I'm a water pokémon," Blastoise rumbled in her tenor voice, eyeing Charizard disdainfully and shuffling her water cannons slightly. "And Charizard, you're an idiot."

"Hey! Says you Blastoise!"

Venusaur shook his large dinosaur like head as he glanced at the two. He stepped forward slightly, making the leaves on his back rustle. "Both of you need to chill," he advised. Then he sighed. "Well, I'm Venusaur, a plant pokémon."

Raichu came up next, playfully jumping up on top of Venusaur's head. While Venusaur sighed, smiling, Raichu sat up, letting her lightning tail whip around. "I think you guys know me now, I'm Raichu."

"And you're electric," the short boy with red hair commented. The large bug next to him let its wings buzz.

"Yep!"

"And you're also the reason why Nicole is electrified right now," Gabumon, who had padded up to Matt, pointed out with a slightly disapproving tone.

"She's used to it."

All the Digidestined and digimon collectively winced.

Then, Haunter floated up above the entire group, purposely casting a dark shadow over everyone. He let out a cackling laugh, grinning demonically down at the Digi group, letting his almost insubstantial body fade slightly in the bright sun. The effect it created caused the group to stare in a strange sort of horrific apprehension.

Then Venusaur ruined it by yelling upwards, "Stop scaring them! It's not funny!"

Haunter pouted, which looked extremely funny to everyone else. "Yes it is!" he retorted, coming down and letting all remains of his little 'joke' disappear.

Nicole sighed, finally deciding to speak up a bit. "This is Haunter. He's a practical joker."

"And I'm a ghost type pokémon!" Haunter answered, grinning again, before laughing.

Finally, Stellath came up from where she had been keeping herself aloft next to Scyther, and glancing at Nicole, seemed to make a decision and flew up to perch on Charizard's head knobs. "I'm Stellath, I'm not a pokémon, I'm a dragon. And I'm only this size because I want to be. I'm actually a lot bigger."

"It's because she was from the Morphias dragon clan in her home world – they can change their size at will," Nicole added in.

"Show us!" one of the smaller kids, one with blond hair, a bucket hat, and an uncanny resemblance to Matt piped up, grinning at Stellath.

Stellath glanced at Nicole, who shrugged. With that, Stellath hopped off of Charizard's head to the ground, and let herself glow with a yellowish light, which masked all her features. Her form grew, taller and larger, and suddenly stopped when she reached Charizard's height. With that, the light dissipated, and there stood Stellath, who, as large as Charizard, commanded an even more impressive display of power. Her golden scaled skin rippled with sparkling light, and her green eyes became prevalent, showing a brightness that shone with wisdom. Yet hidden deep within them was a slight shimmer of sorrow.

The Digidestined and digimon, who had never seen Stellath like that before (or had really ever seen Stellath in general), gazed in wonder at the dragon before them.

The brown haired girl with the clip in her hair watched, fascinated. "Is this your true size?"

Stellath grinned toothily, though she really couldn't help it at her size. "No. I'm bigger. But I don't need to go larger, I actually like being small." Her squawks had changed into a deeper, more tenor sounding croon.

"Because you like to spy on everyone," Blastoise muttered.

Stellath ignored the pokémon and with a shrug, proceeded to shrink back down to the small dragonet she had been moments before.

Nicole nodded. "Okay," she began, shifting a bit from where she was sitting into a cross-legged position, facing pointedly at the others. "Now we know that you guys are the Digidestined, and you," she turned to the other creatures, "are digimon, though we don't know how you all managed to meet up. So how about some introductions from you guys as well?"

Tai looked over the entire group of pokémon, one human, and one dragon. It almost seemed too surreal for there to be another group of monsters who weren't digimon, plus a dragon, and one person who seemed amazingly well integrated into the group. He supposed they were used to it, like his team was used to being the Chosen kids for the security of the Digiworld.

Shrugging, he stepped forward. "Right then. Well, the story with the digimon comes in when we were all at summer camp two years ago, and we got pulled into the Digiworld, where we met the digimon. Then a ton of things happened, we found out the world was digital, our home was attacked, we had to save the world... yeah, it's all very confusing. Anyway, I'm Kamiya Taichi, or Tai to you. I'm kind of the unofficial leader here..."

Matt laughed. "Come on Tai, we all chose you back in the Digiworld. Well, all of us except Kari, but that's beside the point."

Tai blinked by the sudden show of support. "Okay, yeah, I was chosen as the leader back when we had our big adventure."

"Where he met me!" Agumon piped up, jumping forward in excitement. "Hi, I'm Agumon, Tai's digimon partner! I'm a rookie level digimon, and I like both fire and eating."

He was automatically met with a loud outburst from Charizard, who yelled, "Rock on, dude!"

While the group collectively burst out into a round of laughter, Sora shook her head in a motherly fashion. "Well, I think we've found two 'mons who will be getting along really well," she commented. "By the way, I'm Takenouchi Sora, nice to meet you."

"And I'm Sora's partner, Biyomon!" Biyomon hopped up next to her partner cheerfully. Sora glanced over to the digimon, and the two smiled at each other with an intimate understanding.

Tai inwardly shrugged to himself. He didn't understand how girls understood all those subtle things that he tended to overlook... and it wasn't exactly his fault either, as he was a guy. Girls would be girls. And he himself was probably doomed to being forever blunt.

He suddenly had no idea why he had thought of the topic in the first place.

Izzy was next, smiling and shrugging. "My name is Izumi Koushiro, it is a pleasure to meet you. You can call me Izzy, it's faster to say than Koushiro."

"Yes, Izzy is our computer expert here. Oh, and I'm Tentomon, I'm Izzy's digimon partner!" Tentomon stepped forward, sitting down readily next to Izzy.

Raichu's ears perked up. "You're the electric one right?"

Tentomon cocked his head to one side. "Yes?"

"Pika-bug!" Haunter suddenly shouted out, cackling. The other pokémon looked at each other and began chuckling. Stellath was visibly shaking, and even Nicole seemed to be trying to keep her mouth straight.

In response, Izzy and Tentomon glanced at each other. Then they shrugged, deciding not to bother, although Tai could tell that Izzy was slightly curious as to find out why the Pokégroup found Haunter's comment so amusing.

Then Mimi waved, and spoke (to everyone's surprise) in English to Nicole, though they could all still understand it. "Hi, I'm Mimi Tachikawa!"

Nicole, Stellath, and the Pokémon blinked. "That's English!" Nicole blurted, suddenly surprised.

Mimi nodded. "Yes, I'm moving to America. So I've been working on my English!"

Nicole grinned. "That's cool! Where in America?"

"New York."

Nicole looked slightly disappointed. "Dang, I live on the West Coast."

"But wait, email?"

"Oh yeah!"

"Yes!"

"Girls..." Matt muttered barely loud enough for everyone to hear, rolling his eyes slightly. While the boys all burst out laughing (including the male pokémon and digimon), all the females in the group all glared at him. Kari even stuck her tongue out at him, which only increased the laughter of the other guys, and made some of the girls begin giggling as well.

Still giggling, Palmon also nodded, jumping up with Mimi. "Then hi, I'm Palmon! Nice to meet you!"

Gomamon also hopped up next to Palmon. "And I'm Gomamon! I'm a water digimon!"

"And he's also my partner," Joe answered, shaking his head slightly. Still, he smiled. "So you know me, I'm Kido Jyou. Joe works fine too."

With that, TK and Kari both came up together, with cheerful attitudes. They looked at each other for a moment, until TK nodded towards Kari. Kari shrugged, and turned to the pokémon group. "I'm Tai's little sister, Hikari. But everyone calls me Kari for short," she said. "And Gatomon is my partner, but she's at the Champion level, unlike all the other digimon." She picked up Gatomon as she said this, hugging her partner closely. Gatomon only nodded and smiled in reply towards the group.

"Champion?" Blastoise asked, tilting her head to one side. "That's one of those stage things right?"

The Digidestined and digimon all looked at each other. "Yeah, it is. You heard it from Matt, right?" Izzy answered, giving the pokémon a confirmatory glance.

All the other group nodded. "Digi-egg, Baby, In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, Mega," Scyther listed off, "Right?"

"Yep!" TK grinned heartily. Then he smiled. "My name Takeru, or TK for short. Nice to meet you!" he exclaimed brightly. "I'm Matt's younger brother!"

Patamon came up to join TK on top of his head. TK grinned upwards, while Patamon made himself comfortable. "And I'm Patamon, I'm TK's partner! You can call me Patamon!" he replied. A moment later, he blinked. "I didn't need to say the last part did I?"

TK laughed. "That's fine, Patamon. Or should we instead call you Pata-chan?"

"Hey!"

After some general giggling from the cuteness of the scene, Tai sighed, feeling his old leadership emotions coming back. Here everyone was, together, with many 'mons, and in an entirely new world none of them had ever been to before. It felt almost exactly like the first time they had gone to the Digiworld, only there were extra people and mon's. However, unlike before, he now felt responsible for the well being of the entire group. Like he truly was the leader.

The entire first adventure had matured him a good deal; in fact, it had matured everyone. He was almost a different person from the one that had yelped and jumped away from the shock of seeing Koromon two years earlier. For this adventure, he was ready to jump back into the leader position, this time watching for everyone from the very beginning.

He nodded. "All right then. We all know each other, so now we should come up with sort of plan as to what we're going to do." Tai glanced around the beach area, and over towards the forest. "I think the best thing to do first would get some people to scout the area, and see what supplies everyone has, along with maybe some others going off to find food so we can save whatever other food we have. We don't know how long we'll be here, and if this is like our first experience in the Digiworld, we're going to be talking a lot about food and such."

He immediately noticed as Nicole groaned. "We always talked about food!" she moaned softly. Charizard sniggered at her.

Inwardly, Tai snorted. It seemed the two groups were similar after all.

At that, it seemed that Joe had decided to check on Nicole. He once again approached her warily, to make see if the electric field surrounding her had finally dissipated – after all, Venusaur had let one of his vines come close to her without being injured, so perhaps she was no longer electrified.

He blinked when he felt a slight shock come back from her when he came to touching her arm. Sighing, Joe shook his head. "Still electrified."

With that, Blastoise groaned, stamping her foot and facing Nicole. "This is taking too long," she muttered, and with that, she ungracefully shoved Joe away.

Joe fell over into the sand, a little ways from Nicole. "Hey!" he cried in indignation.

Blastoise didn't listen, and looked Nicole straight in the eye, aiming her water cannons carefully.

Nicole's eyes widened. "Blastoise, is this really necessary?"

"Yes," the pokémon replied, before calling out, "Water Gun!"

FOOM.

As all the digimon and Digidestined stared again, Nicole glared at Blastoise as she stood up, letting water drip down from her soaking wet body. She indignantly placed her hands on her hips, as her soaked clothes clung to her. "I give up," she announced, "Come on Blastoise, we might as well do something useful while I'm wet."

"Great idea!" Tai called out, whereupon Blastoise and Nicole both turned their gazes towards him, blinking. "You can go fishing!"

Nicole raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Sure," she answered, glancing at Tai, before motioning to Blastoise. Together, the two headed over towards the ocean, followed by Stellath and Scyther a few moments later.

Tai shrugged off the slightly strange glance he'd gotten from her, before turning to assign everyone else to various jobs for a little bit.

* * *

Matt sighed, as he boredly worked on drying out the large pile of fish sitting in the center of the circle of working humans (and a few digimon and pokémon). After some debating and checking over the supplies the group did have, everyone had unanimously decided to preserve a large amount of food and set out the next morning down the beach. The only people who had brought any actual food with them from the Real World were Joe and Nicole, and even then it wasn't a very large amount, and the Digidestined did not want to have to deal with hungry digimon in no condition to fight (as they had dealt with many times at the beginning of their adventure two years earlier.)

He glanced over to a small pile further away, where lay multiple bags and supplies – the things that had been brought to the Middle World. There were the items directly out of people's pockets and/or purses, like a toy slingshot, disposable camera, and mini-telescope (all courtesy of Tai), fishing wire (Kari, surprisingly), some old bandages (Sora always seemed prepared for accidents), a few pieces of candy (TK never ceased to forget his sugar), and a both a large canvas covering and a bottle of rubber cement (where Mimi had come up with that, no one knew). Then there were other supplies from people's bags, most notably Joe's regular pack of food, drinks, medical supplies, and science books. Matt's pack mostly consisted of a few things useful in dire situations (flashlight, rope, pocketknife, notebook, hot cocoa, etc.), and Izzy hadn't brought anything except his laptop. Then there was Nicole's bag, which still lay unopened. She had assured them, in her very words, that the most of the food there was "not safe for human consumption. But great for non-humans."

Later, Matt found out from Blastoise that Nicole had actually made most of the food.

He had a feeling that was the reason why Nicole wasn't helping dry out the fish.

Sighing, he went back to his job. Earlier, the digimon and pokémon had gotten together and using their various abilities, managed to evaporate some seawater, leaving a respectable amount of salt left. Now, all the humans were busy trying to roast and dry out the fish (minus Nicole, who was wrapping and packing the fish instead), while the 'mons took watch and continued scouting around the area.

Somehow, their location did not seem very promising. Tentomon and Biyomon had reported that the forest stretched on for a while, where there were a few ponds and a lake further off. Then beyond that, lay a large desert.

Needless to say, everyone wanted to stay by the beach.

Something wet and slimy hit Matt in the face. The sound of laughter filled the general area, as the fish made a loud slapping noise and fell into his lap. He decidedly kept a mute expression on his face as the others around him tried quickly to muffle their laughter.

"Who threw that?" he demanded, feeling slightly annoyed yet amused at the same time.

Sora glanced over and smiled apologetically. "Actually, we don't know. It just kind of jumped from the pile and smacked you."

"I guess the fish don't like you much," Gabumon commented, taking a break from his shift.

Matt shrugged as gingerly picked up the erring dead fish and tossed it back onto the pile. "I'm surprised, you would think that the fish would like someone who embodies Friendship..." he stated offhandedly in a joking tone, "...but they could be angry because I've cooked them so often."

The group laughed again at the amusing comment Matt made, though a couple of the pokémon suddenly gave Nicole a few suspicious looks. Matt distantly remembered that Nicole was psychic, and suspicion grew in his head.

Nicole noticed the looks. "I'm innocent," she stated simply, while continuing to wrap some of the fish in leaves.

Matt had an innate feeling that she was telling the truth, so he decided to hold off on somewhat unfounded accusations. Still, he wondered what had really happened concerning the fish, also because he was now feeling a strong sense of disgust about the fact his face now had fish oil all over it. The same intuition in his head told him it was Haunter, who had made himself invisible just for the purpose of throwing the fish earlier, so Matt glanced around, trying to see if he could catch a glimpse of the elusive ghost pokémon.

In moments, he quickly caught sight of Haunter floating behind Mimi, cackling softly as the human girl complained about "the ickiness" of dead fish and the horrible smell it brought about. While Gomamon began adamantly defending the rights of deceased fish and Palmon in turn tried to defend Mimi, Haunter only continued to cackle, a manic gleam in his eye and a fish hidden behind him. However, the pokémon failed to notice Matt's gaze.

Personally, Matt thought it would have been funny if he let Haunter do whatever he wanted and drop a fish on Mimi's head, but it would have also been somewhat cruel to Mimi. Conversely, it would also have been amusing if one of the fish flew up and smacked Haunter in the face as well. Sighing, Matt pictured the fictional event in his head, subtly grinning.

At once, to his complete surprise, one of the fish by Mimi flew up above her and smacked Haunter in the face.

Matt had to stare, not because Haunter was suddenly cackling his almost insubstantial head off due to the backfire of his plan, but because Matt had pictured the event happening in his mind, exactly the way it had happened. He noticed, blankly, that he was the only one not laughing at Haunter's predicament, and he quickly started laughing softly to try and cover up his moment of confusion.

"Those are some pretty creepy fish," Kari commented, carefully eyeing the pile.

Tai laughed. "Aiee! It's the attack of the evil zombie fish!" He mimed a struggle with the fish he was holding, scooting away from the other fish lying around him as he attempted to 'free himself from the death grip of the zombie fish.'

While everyone around him laughed, Joe shook his head disapprovingly. "Tai, that's not funny."

Tai stopped, giving Joe a very indignant glare. "What, are you siding with Gomamon now that the deceased fish should either be given decent burials or ritually eaten?"

"I'm just wondering, what kind of things could happen in this world? You never know, maybe the fish really are undead!"

_Maybe there's just something really strange going on,_ Matt thought, wondering about the phenomenon concerning his mental image and the flying fish. Then he closed his eyes, deciding to ignore it. _I'm being stupid, these just must be really weird fish. It's not like they would blow up or anything..._

POP.

Matt tore his thoughts away from the idea of an exploding fish, and opened his eyes to look towards the sound. He, along with everyone else there, stared at the pile, where a few fish had seemingly popped or exploded, leaving little bits of raw fish all over the ground.

_This is too weird..._

"Ew," was Mimi's response to the entire ordeal.

Nicole blinked, and calmly dropped what she was holding. She stood up, stretching slightly. "The fish are disturbing me," she stated bleakly, "So do you mind if I go take a walk?"

"Of course not!" TK answered.

"It's not as though we wouldn't allow it," Izzy added on, though he seemed slightly curious as to the phenomenon regarding the fish.

Nicole smiled. "Thanks, I'll be back," she replied, carefully retreating from the group and walking away towards the forest.

Matt sighed as he watched her go. It was no wonder she was disturbed, with exploding fish and whatnot. He was vaguely relieved that no one else seemed too concerned about the fish, but still, it bothered him. He had only thought about the events happening or pictured them in his head, and they'd happened...

Absently, Matt thought about Nicole's psychic abilities and wondered about them. He hadn't told the others, and Nicole didn't seem too keen on telling them either. He didn't know why, but maybe it was a trust issue, and the fact that he had seen her teleporting into Odaiba had given her reason to tell him about her abilities in the first place. Maybe it was possible that she had inadvertently caused the fish incidents, and was leaving because she didn't want to deal with confused Digidestined?

But the fish events and the thoughts in his head couldn't just be coincidence.

As a test, Matt decidedly concentrated on one fish sitting at the top of the pile, thinking about it suddenly bouncing up and down sporadically like a small rubber ball. He absently conjured the image in his mind, focusing on the fish.

At first, nothing happened. Matt felt a sigh of relief leave him, though he didn't break his concentration. _Good, so it was Nicole then..._

Then the fish twitched, and began jumping up into the air as though it were an elastic rubber object.

Matt immediately stood up as he broke his concentration, earning the glances of everyone else. "That does it, these fish really are disturbing," he announced loudly, though he tried (rather successfully, he thought) to hide the fact he was extremely shocked and confused. "I'll be taking up Nicole's idea and go take a walk too."

With that, he walked away very quickly, thoughts flying through his head.

_What the HELL just happened! What's going on!_

_What's happening to me?_

* * *

_It wasn't me_, Nicole kept telling herself as she walked briskly through the wooded area. _It couldn't have, I wasn't trying to do anything, I've been training, I wasn't even thinking about the fish..._

For all her worrying, she knew that whatever had happened had occurred due to psychic reasons. She'd seen her own tries at controlling her abilities, and the practicing of others in the Pokéworld, and she knew a psychic occurrence when she saw one.

Absently, Nicole reached into the neck of her shirt, feeling for the familiar cord of her pendant. She pulled it out, letting it rest against her chest as she fingered the upside-down tear-shaped stone quietly. She stopped where she was, standing in a small clearing surrounded by trees and underbrush as she gently let her fingers curl themselves around it.

The small movement comforted her feelings slightly. With a small sigh, she let her hand fall back to her side, decidedly letting the pendant sit outside her shirt.

Nicole forced herself to think rationally. She was stuck in another world with eight other humans and their digimon partners, with no knowledge of how long the entire venture would take. In circumstances like this, people were bound to find out each other's secrets. She knew this fact from experience (but that time it was with a close friend and his six pokémon, not sixteen almost complete strangers). Sooner or later, she would have to tell them about her psychic abilities...

With an optimistic thought, she hoped they would accept her for herself, like all the people in the Pokéworld had. But she still had a nagging feeling that they might just label her as "the freak" like her entire school had because strange things always happened around her – like soda can that had literally exploded once when she was stressed and angry during a school lunch period.

She didn't always necessarily mind, since she had the company of the pokémon and Stellath to return to. But she did miss human company, and she didn't want to spend a long period of time being at odds with eight other humans. With a slight sigh, she decided she had no choice but to hide her abilities. Now, she just had no idea how she would explain the entire "glowing blue while in a trance" situation from earlier.

Done with her introspective thinking, Nicole let out a long breath and backed herself against a tree. She leaned against it, feeling the sturdy pillar of the trunk support her weight. Inwardly, she smiled, idly dwelling on memories, while lifting a hand to finger the stone of her necklace again. _I wonder what he would think of this new adventure,_ she thought, remembering past ordeals and old friends.

Suddenly, a strange shockwave of energy burst through the ground, running through the living trees and plants. Nicole stood upright in surprise as the tree behind her trembled with power, and she quickly gazed around, steadying her posture and readying herself for whatever was coming.

However, instead of sensing a threat, she felt the gentle call of another being. She let herself relax slightly, bringing down her guard and trying to locate the source of the call.

The wave ran through the ground again. This time, she let it come through her, feeling it rumble in her bones. A slight buzz came to gritted teeth, and she quickly released them, realizing the tension within her. However, the buzz of her teeth reminded her of the same sensation felt when one hummed with closed teeth. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the wave.

Again, the wave came, but Nicole could now recognize a deep, mellow song in its vibrations. She felt for the source, walking slowly in the direction it came from, using her intuition to guide her where her eyes could not lead.

Soon, the energy signature felt stronger, and she broke into a run, letting her eyes open again so she could evade any trees. Branches and underbrush whipped past, as she continued forward, whizzing by as she put on a larger burst of energy. Spurred on by the strengthening call, she felt everything whistle past, as though she herself was moving faster than she could comprehend...

Then with a burst of light, she stopped.

The lake gleamed with pristine blue, a peaceful body of water in the huge forest. Nicole had stopped on the bank of smooth stones that tumbled forth into the calm liquid. Gentle waves churned smoothly with soothing sounds of lapping water, and orange setting sunlight barely piercing its seemingly fathomless depths. She took in the clear air that arose from the lake, catching the barest hint of salt.

She blinked at the scent of salt, before carefully eyeing the lake with curiosity to why the slight remnants of seawater would be in the lake. The force of the energy felt strong, as it emanated from the lake in intense, almost ardent waves. Cautiously, Nicole approached the point where the water met the shore, carefully feeling her way down the rocks with the toes of her shoes. As rocks shifted beneath her feet, something thumped hard within her.

Nicole looked down in shock, as she saw something glowing blue from inside her chest. _My... my heart...?_

The glow pulsed for a few moments, before fading, and the lake reciprocated, bursting into light. Rainbow flashes danced across the surface as a dark shape began to form in the depths of the water. Slowly, it grew, as it seemed to near the surface. An echoing sound pierced the relative quiet of the area, growing in intensity as a great white body broke the surface of the lake.

The huge creature, with its draconian head, flew up to float in the air above the lake. It stayed aloft with large, hand-like wings, as blue markings streaked its body and indigo fins dotted its neck, back, and tail. It delicately turned its streamlined, draconic body toward the shore, bending its head down and eying Nicole with intelligent eyes.

Nicole could only gaze back in wonder, as the great sea guardian pokémon Lugia regarded her curiously.

"_So... it is you_," Lugia spoke, her deep voice seeming to linger everywhere. "_I am Lugia."_

Nicole only blinked as she stared. Somehow, she couldn't comprehend what was happening.

Lugia smiled slightly. "_Do not worry, child. The important thing is that you and the others have arrived here in the Middle World_."

"S-so... there is a purpose? For us?" Nicole stuttered out, overtaken by the fact that a great creature such as Lugia was taking the time to speak to her.

Lugia nodded. "_Yes. Let me explain, for you must understand. There is a long explanation, Mew child, and you must know before accepting._

"_Years ago, here in the Middle World, one of the great Mewtwos made a prophecy; a prophecy of great value to us now. Our young Mewtwo, heir to the role of Middle World Seer, sent it to you in the form of a dream, did he not?"_

Nicole nodded.

"_He also sent to us, the current guardians of the Middle World, a warning and a call for help. For the time has come. The Four Dark Lords have arisen here, and the Seven Innocents have been taken. And finally, your group has arrived here. The prophecy is coming true, and the four who must fight directly must also accept their duty as part of their destiny._

"_You, Mew child, are one of them. Which one of the four, I know not as of now. But as you answered my summons when I sent my stream of power, you must, in turn, become the messenger."_

Nicole felt herself enter into a dazed mood. A heavy burden had been placed upon her, a strange feeling of almost implausible thoughts and emotions. Yet she felt great responsibility for what the prophecy had decreed, and what Lugia said. She had no choice but to believe.

Finally, she let out a deep exhale, nervousness and resignation covering her senses. "What do I do? And what do I need to tell the others?"

Lugia seemed to nod in reply. "_You must follow the prophecy. You must search out the other six guardians of this world – Moltres, Mewtwo, Houou, Zapdos, Mew, and Articuno. You must gain their signs – you, along with the other three chosen to directly fight the Dark Lords. Here, take two stones from beneath the waters of the lake."_

Nicole carefully bent down, letting her fingers dip into the cool waters of the lake. Seemingly, they automatically curled around two, smooth, ovular stones that she carefully fished out, letting water stream from her hand as she held the two stones in her palm. Then she looked back up at Lugia, who watched her patiently.

"_I add my power to yours. You have my sign."_

Both stones began to glow with a deep, blue light, as a symbol began to form within them. To Nicole's surprise, the stones became hollow, and what seemed like a small moon with a tear drop on it soon became corporeal, within the stones, and began to rotate slowly. Looking back at both, she could see that both stones were identical now, with the same sign floating inside.

"Thank you," Nicole bowed humbly to Lugia, unsure of what was to happen. "The prophecy – it mentions rescuing the Seven Innocents. They are...?"

Lugia bowed her head sadly. "_They are the heirs to the guardians, each of the same kind, for in this world, unlike the one of Pokémon, there exist more than one of the Great ones. Among the Innocents are my daughter, and the young Mewtwo. They are victims in this plan of the Dark Lords in the quest for power. If they are to succumb to the Dark Lords, or if they are still captive and current guardians fall, then order will be lost in this world, and the Dark Lords can continue to their ambitions..."_

Nicole also bowed her head. She felt empathy for the plight of Lugia. Inwardly, she vowed to do what she could, as she now had a position to fulfill. "Do you...know of the Dark Lords?"

"_Only what young Mewtwo sent as images of them. Bats, with crimson lightning; dark, deadly dusk dragons; a great cloud of pure darkness; streams of lightning from below. These are all symbols of the Dark Lords, and I am sure you will encounter them. All you can do now is gain the signs of the other guardians, but we are strewn across the land. Follow your intuition, and you will find them._

"_Moltres is nearby, and he can always be found in a forest fire. But he may not recognize you, so I will give you my song. Remember it, for it may be your last chance in desperate situations."_

A melody, clear as a shining crystal, sung through the crisp air. It sang mystery, loneliness, and contemplation, emotions cascading over each other like the rapids of a high-speed river. Nicole took it in for the simplicity and beauty of it, feeling its magic as the song implanted itself in her mind.

"_Remember it. Remember my words, the song, the prophecy, everything. It is of utter importance if many worlds are to keep their liberty and order. The Middle World is a balance, one of the many points where different worlds connect. If one balance tips or breaks, it causes the destruction of the system and possibly other worlds."_

Lugia seemed to make her last sentence finite, the end of a long speech of important messages and words. Yet Nicole had one question in her mind, one that regarded herself...

"Lugia? Can I ask..." Nicole began. Lugia nodded before Nicole could finish her sentence, seemingly already knowing what she was going to ask. Nicole let her eyes close slightly. "You referred to me as a Mew child. So, you know about... my heart?"

Lugia nodded, a genuine, almost motherly smile coming to her draconic face. "_Of course. I could feel it the moment you entered the proximity of the lake. You need not worry about its presence; after all, you have received a gift by having it within you. Although, in this world, inner gifts have a tendency to strengthen by several hundred..."_

Nicole had a sudden image of herself accidentally blowing up a mountain by her psychic abilities. She inwardly shuddered.

"_Do not fear gifts, Mew child. You will grow into them."_ Lugia smiled, gently nodding and sending a reassuring sparkle of light in Nicole's direction. Nicole felt warmth, and she reciprocated the smile. Then Lugia asked, "_What are you called?"_

"Nicole," came Nicole's answer.

Lugia suddenly had a slight brightness in her eye, as though she understood something. "_Ah,"_ she said.

Then, Lugia came down towards Nicole to rest on the bank of stones. Nicole blinked, until Lugia nodded. "_I am returning to the ocean, so I will bring you back to your friends on the way. Remember, you are the messenger and must inform them of what has passed here. All will come to pass, and you will grow from it."_

Unsure, Nicole pocketed the two stones from earlier, and carefully place a slightly trembling hand on Lugia's neck. When Lugia gave her a reassuring smile, Nicole let out a relieved breath and quickly pulled herself into a riding position atop the draconic creature. "Thank you," she whispered.

Lugia bobbed her head for a moment, before launching into the slowly reddening sky.

Nicole smiled as she felt the wind rush against her face. She had a new sense of reassurance, of duty and responsibility. She was prepared for the challenge she knew she had to face, and was ready to pass on all the knowledge she had to everyone else, so they could also prepare. For now, she knew why they had come to the Middle World. She knew their purpose, and the reason for the mission.

Somehow, the weight of what was to come hadn't settled on her yet. She understood the risks though, and had a strange sinking feeling that she could possibly be marching to her doom, along with everyone else. But Lugia's words and calm demeanor relaxed her thoughts, preparing her for what would come.

Although she didn't want to let the others know about her psychic abilities for fear of alienation from them, she remembered Lugia's words. Maybe it would simply take time.

But for now, Nicole would face the future head on.

Just like a Pokémon Master would.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Monty Python. 

THIS CHAPTER'S NG:

_The Fish Slapping Dance_

Personally, Matt thought it would have been funny if he let Haunter do whatever he wanted and drop a fish on Mimi's head, but it would have also been somewhat cruel to Mimi. Conversely, it would also have been amusing if one of the fish flew up and smacked Haunter in the face as well. Sighing, Matt pictured the fictional event in his head, subtly grinning.

He glanced over to Haunter, thinking that maybe he should stop the pokémon before anything happened, but then Haunter phased right in front of Mimi. She stopped her complaining, staring at the ghostly creature in front of her.

Then Haunter raised the fish.

SLAP!

Matt (and everyone else) tried not to laugh as Mimi dropped her jaw, having just been slapped on the cheek by Haunter via a dead fish. Haunter just hummed a strange tune as he danced in the air, floating away, then coming back up again.

SLAP!

Mimi just sat dumbstruck, as Haunter once again continued to dance in the air, continuing his strange motions.

SLAP!

Matt joined everyone else in the collective snorts and muffled giggles. Mimi did not seem amused, as a somewhat angry look came about her. Haunter only continued his little song, and he came up to Mimi one more time.

SLAP!

At this, Haunter finally stopped, floating in the air in front of Mimi, grinning and cackling like an insane monster (which he really was, after all).

Mimi, very un-amused, calmly dug through the pile of fish and pulled out the largest one she could find – one that was almost two feet long. With that, she hoisted the fish into her arms, then held it in a batting position, glaring at Haunter.

WHACK!

To everyone's surprise, the fish made contact with Haunter. The pokémon flew away from the group, over the beach, and right into the pounding surf of the ocean with a loud splash.

While everyone finally broke out into insane laughter, Stellath flew up and turned to the poor hapless pokémon now sitting amidst the waves. "It's your own fault, Haunter," she said, making a slight tsk-ing sound with her tongue. "No more Monty Python for you."


	5. Abilities and a Purpose Revealed

**

* * *

**

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or Digimon, but I do own Stellath, Nicole, and most of the ideas for this story.

A/N: Lots of changes to the original. In the original, only Matt showed any signs of strange powers, and the chapter ended with a major cliffhanger (a spoiler for the next chapter!), and Nicole did not wander about giving people energy. And Haunter has more action. And no one has any idea about the prophecy stuff and who the people are, etc. Also, there is rivalry tension...

Actually, I think I like this rewrite much better than the original (but then again, I was in sixth grade when I wrote the original on notebook paper, and at the time of writing this, I'm about to be a senior...). Anyhow, please read, enjoy, review or email me if you want to ask a question, and I will be happy to answer it.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

_Abilities and a Purpose Revealed_

* * *

TK hadn't seen his brother so agitated in years. The younger boy watched in concern as Matt nervously paced around, looking around with alert eyes and jumping slightly at any movement not caused by the actions of the others. TK didn't know why Matt was suddenly acting in this manner, but he knew it had started just about when the fish had exploded. Inwardly, TK shrugged. He supposed that anyone could feel disturbed by spontaneously exploding fish, and maybe Matt was just being slightly more paranoid about it...? 

He blinked as he watched a small rock jump up into the air and whack a snoozing Charizard in the head. The pokémon cocked one eye open, yawning widely as he glanced at the object. "Who was that?" he asked, not moving from his spot where he was lounging in the sand.

Everyone else around him shrugged. TK noticed Matt bang his head into Blastoise's shell. Blastoise glanced at him with a suspicious glare, and then made a rumbling "Hmph" noise as she moved away.

TK sighed, and walked over to his brother. "Are you all right Matt?" he asked cautiously.

"I'm perfectly fine!" Matt answered very quickly, his voice a little higher than usual.

TK raised his eyebrow. "Uh huh..." he said, not really believing Matt's comment.

Something was definitely going on.

His thoughts concerning his older brother were suddenly paused by a loud grumble from Agumon's direction. In unison, everyone turned towards the digimon, who grinned sheepishly. "Well, I'm hungry!" he exclaimed.

Tai grinned wryly and tossed Agumon a fish. "Here you go, we've got plenty!"

If there was one thing he never forgot, it was the appetite that Agumon harbored.

As Agumon happily consumed his fish, TK watched blankly at everyone continued to dry out the huge amounts of fish (Charizard and Agumon had helped a lot earlier, and now Charizard was on break). Now that most of the job was done, people were slowly beginning to back off the task, lounging in the sand or playing in the water. Gomamon was having a lot of fun splashing people, which had started a minor water fight amongst him, Kari, Sora, and Raichu.

Sighing, TK also took a fish (a roasted one), biting into it. He vaguely wondered if this new world meant that another huge adventure was starting. He could remember his dream from earlier relatively well, and wondered if it meant that the group would travel again just like they had two years earlier... of course, with the addition of another person, and seven more monsters.

He sat himself in the sand, with his back to the forest, staring out into the ocean. He vaguely felt Patamon land in his customary place atop his hat, and TK grinned, looking up. "Enjoying the view?"

"Yep!" came Patamon's peppy answer. Then there was a pause, before Patamon continued with a comment. "Hey TK, you've grown up."

"Huh?"

"You sound older. And more experienced."

TK chuckled. "Well, I am ten now, it's definitely older than eight."

Patamon laughed back, and the two of them watched as others around them fell back to other various activities, such as drawing in the sand, stringing up fish, or in the case of Joe, 'trying to find a source of non-salt water'. Blastoise had complained that she could easily provide everyone with the fresh water they needed, but Joe had insisted. TK could actually concur; he didn't feel comfortable drinking water that had just come from a living creature.

Quietly, TK began looking up at the sky, where the bright afternoon sun shone down. He enjoyed the feeling of warmth coming down onto his face, coupled with the slight shade made by Patamon's wings. A breeze blew past, ruffling his blond hair, and he smiled, only vaguely taking in Kari asking Tai for his shirt. Ignoring Tai's puzzled remark, he began to let his mind wander.

In all honesty, he wondered exactly why they were here, in this strange world that he remembered being called the Middle World. TK could only speculate as to what would happen, and what sort of task they were expected to complete. So far though, all he had seen in terms of life were multitudes of fish and a few flying birds. He sighed, wondering if other digimon were in the world itself, and if they would come into play during whatever adventure was about to happen.

"Hey Patamon! Come up here, we wanna' chat!" Biyomon called from up high, who was floating in the air along with Stellath. With a shrug, Patamon left the comfort of TK's hat to converse with some of the other digimon up higher.

TK serenely watched Patamon go, before taking off his hat and closing his eyes, smiling as he enjoyed the light wind brushing past his face. He had it in his mind to only sit and relish the sunlight, peacefully thinking about nothing save for the feelings of unity with the entire group.

A moment later, he heard the light patter of feet close to him.

He opened his eyes, blinking at the suddenness of Kari standing right in front of him. "Kari? Wha - "

Sploosh.

TK let his mouth drop as water poured down over his head. "Hey!" he yelled in indignation, standing up suddenly and staring at Kari in shock. She only smiled innocently, holding Tai's soaked shirt in one hand, though it had been squeezed over TK's head.

TK blinked, then gained his own devilish grin, before chasing Kari all the way down the beach towards the ocean, where the other water fight participants were waiting, leaving his hat where he had been sitting.

Tai stared at the two youngest members of the group. "So that's what she wanted my shirt for..." he mumbled, crossing his arms with a wry grin.

Inwardly, he was wondering where Nicole had wandered off to. He knew she couldn't be tracked because she was not a Digidestined (and therefore had no digivice), and it had been a little while since she had left. He didn't even know very much about her, except that she was from America and ran around with seven monsters all the time. Izzy had told him about other people in the world becoming Digidestined after having seen what had happened in the sky two years earlier, plus the internet battle, since he had lately been in contact with them through email. Maybe Nicole would become one of these people?

He heard someone trudging up to him, and turned to the side, where he saw Joe despondently approaching. "No luck, I couldn't find a freshwater inlet," he reported, before taking notice of Tai. "Tai, why are you not wearing a shirt?"

Tai pointed directly at the water front, where the water fight had become a heated battle. Kari was using Tai's shirt as something to help splash unsuspecting victims with the sea spray.

Joe stared. "Since when has Kari become so devilish?"

Tai shrugged. "I'm not sure. She's friends with this kid called Davis at school, and he can be something of a troublemaker, so I think she's been influenced a bit."

"That makes sense," Joe nodded, with a suddenly enlightened look on his face.

Tai stood for a moment, watching his younger sister splashing around with the others in the water fight. Haunter had joined as well, and was happily catching others with water while not being affected very well himself. Tai thought that maybe it was part of his ghost-ness. Tai had also noticed that Gatomon was wisely staying far away from the water.

"Hey Joe, did you see Nicole anywhere?" he suddenly said out of nowhere.

Joe blinked in surprise for a moment, before shaking his head.

Tai shrugged. "Okay. Why don't you go talk to Mimi or something?"

"Wha?" Joe jumped slightly and stared at Tai. "Where did _that_ come from?" he asked in surprise. Tai gave Joe a pointed look, and Joe groaned, glaring at Tai in return. "Tai, stop playing matchmaker. Besides, she's talking to Scyther."

Mimi was indeed having an interesting conversation with the bug pokémon, along with Palmon who had joined her partner. "You're so graceful when you move, Scyther!" Mimi exclaimed with delight, "It's beautiful!"

Scyther bowed slightly. "Thank you. It comes from martial training actually."

"Really?" Palmon asked curiously.

"Yes. I consider it something of an art form, actually, like a dance. It happens to also come in handy when battling."

"Are all Scythers as graceful as you are?" Mimi inquired. She had taken a liking to Scyther, being able to look beneath a somewhat formidable exterior to see a gentle, kind female soul underneath (albeit a fighting one). And despite a fear of bugs at times, Mimi didn't feel any apprehension about being by Scyther.

Scyther blinked at the question. "Probably, after all, I'm only one Scyther out of dozens of swarms."

Back over by Tai and Joe, Joe was sighing as he stared at Mimi's back. Tai sniggered slightly at his friend, before regaining his composure and shrugging. "Okay then, you can stay here with me. Or go talk to Izzy. "

"He's with Venusaur."

Indeed, Izzy was speaking with Venusaur, trying to learn all about the Pokémon world. His curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he wanted to know all about this strange world that the pokémon came from. With him was Tentomon, equally curious.

"Are you serious? One hundred fifty different types?" Izzy asked, astonished that trainers had to know about all the different types, their attacks, elemental alignments, and such.

Venusaur nodded his huge head, grunting somewhat. "Yeah, at least in Kanto. There are tons of other different ones on other continents."

"Sounds fascinating! And then certain types are strong and weak against different types – fighting in this seems so much more strategic than in the Digiworld," Tentomon commented.

Venusaur cocked his head to one side, ruffling the leaves of the flower on his back. "But you have many different stages of evolution, and you can go different ways, right? All those combinations in themselves are very interesting. Plus, there is the fact that you digimon don't stay permanently in your evolved forms."

While the three of them continued to talk about such things as evolution, differences in worlds, and other intellectual subjects, Tai sighed in resignation. He had never been a particularly bright and curious child, so he left that trio to their musings.

Joe had taken to standing next to Tai, watching as Agumon also joined the water fight. He glanced over to Matt, wondering what had become of his poor friend's sanity. The blond boy was pacing around nervously, muttering to himself and jumping at small movements, while his partner raced after him in any direction he went, obviously concerned. Matt didn't even notice when he nearly tripped over Charizard's tail.

Charizard opened an eye and flicked the said tail. "At least you didn't step on it," he muttered irritably. Then he saw Matt's pale face, and realizing that the young teen had become something of a nervous wreck, the fire dragon pokémon answered, "Dude, chill out."

"I can't! I've tried! I can't!" Matt screeched in a slightly high voice.

Blastoise, who was about ten feet away lying on her belly in the sand, letting her shell absorb the warmth of the sun, covered her ears, glaring at the young teen. "Go off and meditate or something, it always helped Nicole. And stop pacing, you're making _me_ nervous."

In all aspects, something was not quite right with Matt. Tai began to feel concern for his best friend, wondering if he should go over and ask what the problem was, while Joe sighed, deciding he should leave the poor anxious boy alone for a little bit and talk to Blastoise about water problems.

While Joe began trekking down to Blastoise, Tai glanced around to make sure everyone was accounted for. He still sighed when he noticed that Nicole was nowhere to be seen, slightly annoyed that he could not track her with his digivice. Then he slowly walked over to Matt's position, where he had begun pacing again.

About five feet away from Matt, his blond friend suddenly said, "It's okay Tai, I haven't gone insane. I'm just... kind of in shock right now."

Tai blinked, mostly because Matt had his back to him, and had not even seen him coming. "You sure you're okay?"

"No."

At this Gabumon, who had been trailing behind Matt, quietly turned around to face Tai. "Can you please talk some sense into him? He's been doing this ever since the fish incident."

Tai nodded. "I noticed. For that matter, Nicole hasn't come back since the fish incident either. Was my idea of zombie fish too weird?"

Matt groaned and turned to face Tai again. "No, it has nothing to do with the idea of the zombie fish, it's what started happening to the fish!" At Tai's puzzled glance, he glared. "You know, the hopping around and blowing up and whacking people thing?"

"Oh yeah. That."

Inwardly, Tai thought of what could have caused some of those things to happen. It wasn't as though there was little bits of explosives in the fish, although the idea of it was interesting. He shrugged, thinking in the back of his head how amusing it would be if one of the fish spontaneously caught on fire.

Suddenly, behind them came Palmon's voice, yelping in surprise. "Hey guys, one of the fish just caught on fire!"

Tai froze in shock, before spinning around and staring over to where the group had lain out the fish so that they would be dried out and well preserved by the time they started on any journeys. To his surprise, one of the fish _was_ on fire.

_No no no... that's just coincidence right?_

"Tai... try looking at the fire and pretending that it's either gets bigger or smaller or going out," Matt suddenly said from behind Tai.

Unsure of whatever was going on, Tai did as Matt said, wanting the flame to get bigger... to which it did. Then he tried making it wave from side to side, get smaller, and then go out completely.

To his shock, the flame did exactly that.

Slowly, he turned around to face Matt, eyes wide and face white. He stayed slackjawed, unable to comprehend what was happening. Matt only stared at his friend, a sense of both horror and shock coming over him.

"You – you – you saw that?" Tai asked weakly.

Matt nodded, growing paler than he had before. "Yeah. The same thing's been happening to me."

Tai suddenly remembered how Matt had been uneasy during the fish incident, up until he had left. "Wait – the fish? Was that you?" At Matt's slow nod of confirmation Tai felt like something had hit his stomach. "You blew up the fish!"

"I didn't mean to!"

Still unable to believe the sudden show of strange powers, Tai turned to the side and saw a small bunch of seaweed that had washed up on shore. He glared at it, and imagined the entire thing going up in flames.

A moment later, the piece of seaweed became a mini bonfire, before turning into small bits of ash.

Tai gaped. Then he turned to Matt, who was also gaping. Together, they did the only thing they could think of.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Just about everyone in the area turned to stare at the two hysterical boys, from those involved in the water fight to those conversing with others. Gabumon gazed helplessly, unable to think of anything he could do to help aside from biting them (it worked once on Matt, it could work again).

Sora, completely soaked, sighed at both of them. "Great, now our supposedly infallible leader and his best friend are both insane. I'm probably next."

The next comment she was about to make died in her throat as a large shadow suddenly loomed over the entire beachside. Everyone on the beach looked up into the late afternoon sky to see the creature who had cast it, Biyomon, Patamon, and Stellath all landing immediately from shock the moment it came into view.

The humans and digimon stared in wonder at the great white beast with its draconic head and birdlike wings, while the pokémon and Stellath gaped for a brief moment before bowing their heads in reverence. It glanced at the group with curiosity twinkling in its eyes, and it nodded towards them, acknowledging their presence. It circled above them for a moment before resting in the air with its back to the sea, cocking its head to the side as it gazed over each member, making eye contact with every soul. It also looked up over the group towards the flat rock covering the high part of the bank, blinking and nodding, with what seemed like a slight smile on its face.

Slowly, it opened its jaws, and a mournful song rang across the beach, over the crashes of waves against the shore and the flow of water. It echoed down the bones of people, creating surges of emotion that cascading through them.

The song ended quickly, but the melody still lingered in everyone's minds, as they watched the figure before them.

"_Good luck, Chosen fighters for this world. When the time comes, the powers will unite. Call us."_

The voice continued to echo, as the creature closed its eyes, the water surging up behind it. For a moment, it stayed floating in the air, as a faint glow surrounded it and caused the water to roar, before it propelled itself backwards, twisting in midair to face the sea. Its wings open for flight once again, it flapped them once, letting out one last cry before shooting out into the sky, quickly becoming nothing more than a distant figure over the ocean. Then it snapped its wings to its side, diving into the water.

Still in awe, mostly everyone continued to stare out to where the sea foam circled the place where the creature had disappeared beneath the depths. The pokémon and Stellath continued their bow of reverence, until finally, Charizard lifted up his head and signaled to the others. One by one, they looked up again, still gazing out across the water.

Matt felt a presence behind him, up higher on the bank, and recalling that the creature had glanced up there, he turned. Standing there in the sea wind was Nicole, smiling with a gaze of understanding, as she gently clasped something around her neck with her right hand.

Then, with a triumphant grin, she ran down the bank, towards the ocean and down to the sand, where the pokémon and Stellath immediately jumped up, happy that she had returned, waving and saluting from their various locations before settling down again. Matt nudged Tai, who still seemed to be in shock. "Come on, you've been wondering where she was right? She's back."

Tai didn't answer. He just stared into space.

Matt groaned. "Tai!"

When Tai still didn't respond, Matt finally gave up and punched Tai in the face – hard enough to wake him up, but not so hard that Tai gained a new bruise.

POW!

"Ow! Okay, I'm okay!" Tai yelped in indignation, bringing a hand to cheek and rubbing it, glaring slightly at Matt. "Why are you not in shock any more!"

"Because Nicole can probably explain what's going on," Matt answered, grabbing Tai's wrist and dragging him forward, Tai rambling in protest about how cruel his best friend could be. Behind them, Gabumon followed, still worried about his partner.

To Matt, Nicole was the only answer. He knew she was psychic, and thus the best source to ask if both he and Tai were starting to have strange things occur around them.

He and Tai reached her just as others on the beach noticed her presence. He waved his arm in the air to attract her attention, and she turned, her serene expression changing to one of concern when she saw the pale faces of both Matt and Tai, as well as state of Gabumon behind them, which showed only confusion. "Did something happen to the two of you?" she asked.

"YES!" both boys cried out. All those surrounding them turned to stare once more, before returning to what they had been doing.

Nicole glanced at them, sighing. "I take that it was you guys screaming earlier. Should I ask?"

The two looked at each other for a moment, before Tai finally blurted out, "I'm lighting stuff on fire. By thinking about it!"

"And I was responsible for the fish incident earlier," Matt also confessed, flushing slightly. "Do you have any comments to help out?"

Nicole stared over both of them, first Tai, then Matt, whom she held her gaze on the longest. Then she nodded, before giving her attention to Gabumon. "Gabumon, can you go round up everyone here into a group? I need to talk to everyone together, it's really important."

Gabumon took a glance at Tai and Matt, still white from the events that had occurred earlier, before nodding a slightly confused confirmation at Nicole and running off.

Tai stared in disbelief. "You're not going to tell everyone, are you!"

"Well, no... but what I'm going to say is something that will probably explain your sudden abilities..."

"Well, out with it! I wanna' know how this is all happening before I lose my mind!" Tai shouted at the top of his lungs, jumping in the air with clenched fists and a crazed look to his eyes.

Matt and Nicole both gaped at him. "Tai, chill out! You're freaking out more than I did!" Matt replied, calmly holding in his urge to punch Tai again. "You're already losing your mind!"

"I can't chill out! This is not normal!" Then he turned to Matt and Nicole with a strange look to his face. "I'm not digivolving, am I? Or turning into a digimon?"

"Tai, stop it."

"GAAAHHH!"

Nicole raised her eyebrows. "He's taking it better than I did at least."

Matt just stared at Nicole. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope. I went crazy and my entire team had to sit on me."

Tai was still storming around and holding his head, trying to make sense of things, as other members of the group slowly trickled in towards Nicole's position. Each human and digimon paused and took a moment to gape in Tai's direction as they did so, glancing at Nicole with apologetic looks.

Agumon ran up to his partner, examining the still frantic boy, before sighing and jumping forward, tackling Tai to the sand. Izzy, who was walking past, shrugged at the misfortune that had become of his friend, before giving Nicole a determined look. "Okay, Gabumon said you had something to say that was important. What is it?"

"Yeah, anything that'll bring Tai's mind back," Sora added on as she sat down in the sand.

"And mine," Matt also mumbled.

Nicole gazed around to make sure everyone was accounted for, and smiled. "What I have to say is really important because... it explains what this world is, and why we're here. This is all stuff that Lugia told me, that big pokémon that just flew overhead... and it's by no means very easy to tell, so sit down and just listen..."

* * *

Twenty minutes and many comments and questions later, everyone was thoroughly bewildered by the sudden turn of events, though the Digidestined and digimon seemed the most accepting and least surprised of the fact that they had to, in basic terms, save the world. 

"I can't believe it. We have to do it AGAIN!" Joe whined, putting his head in his hands. "This just happens too often, so much pressure..."

Nicole, Stellath, and the pokémon just gazed at each other uneasily, whereupon Nicole gave a weak laugh. "Ha... ha..."

"Well, think about it the bright way, we've been chosen to save the world!" Raichu suddenly piped up, bouncing in the air and practically singing.

Blastoise glared in Raichu's general direction. "Yeah, you have to be so chipper about it, don't you?"

"Don't be such a cynic," Scyther sighed, smiling slightly while also feeling pressured. "Understandably, as a team, we've done a lot of things, but saving worlds is something we've definitely never had to face before..."

"Ah, don't worry. You'll be inducted into the club of heroes who hath done so quickly enough!" Gomamon cheerfully exclaimed.

Then there was the entire problem concerning Lugia's note about how the power of inner abilities was multiplied by several hundred. Tai and Matt found some solace in that what had happened was not anything to be worried about, and they quickly told the others of what had occurred.

Everyone (minus Nicole, Tai, Matt, and Gabumon, who had heard everything earlier) stared in a mixture of shock and curiosity. "You – you – you... you can do that? Can you show us?" Izzy immediately asked, ecstatic to hear about something he had never heard of before.

"Yeah, it would be useful to show us," Gatomon added, some thoughts concerning fighting strategies coming to her mind.

With a deep breath, Tai turned around and focused on some dried wood that had washed up on shore some time earlier, thinking of it burning to cinders. Within moments, it had burst into flame, creating a bright glow that created vivid shadows on the beachside.

Awed silence. Then it was ruined slightly by a sigh from Matt, who promptly focused on a large rock to the side. Using his newfound abilities, he picked up the rock and dropped it on top of the flame, successfully snuffing it out.

While the others continued to gawp in more awe, Tai blinked and glared at Matt. "Hey!" With that, he focused again, and fire spouted from beneath the rock, coming from its original source of the wood. Matt responded by psychically picking up more rocks and completely burying the fire in it.

Then Tai rebelliously restarted the fire, which prompted more rocks from Matt. By this time, everyone else had finally let it sink in that whatever inner abilities they had would be strengthened and thus much more powerful. In the case of the humans, they were all suddenly aware that they might start exhibiting powers as well.

Soon, the one stone had become a large pile and whatever fire Tai was making resulted in a huge bonfire to overcome the many rocks. With an extremely uneasy sigh, Nicole decided that since everything was happening, she might as well reveal her own abilities. She focused on the entire pile, soon making all the rocks float in the air, and with a slight touch of humor, she made the rocks press against themselves, in a certain formation, until –

"A dancing rock man?" Joe stared, feeling slightly disturbed, speaking the thoughts of just about everyone else. He turned to Matt. "I know the lifting rocks was you now, but how about this?"

Matt shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea. Unless..."

He turned to Nicole with a suspicious look, who blinked and grinned apologetically. Almost immediately, the rock man fell apart into a heap again.

She successfully earned the stares of all the Digidestined and digimon. Inwardly, she wanted to hit herself. _And the extra energy boost just made it easier for me to make myself look even more like a freak..._

"You have abilities too?" Biyomon asked, her eyes suddenly shining. "Wow, we're going to be a really cool group!"

Nicole blinked in surprise at the sudden cheerful comment.

Then Kari spoke up, her voice shaking slightly. "Um, so these powers are going to flare up to a point where we can control them in this world, right?"

TK, Patamon Sora, Biyomon, and Gatomon all looked at each other. They remembered well how two years earlier, Kari's abilities concerning Light had appeared in the sewers, re-energizing them and guiding them towards the rest of the group.

Nicole nodded. "I guess so, it's certainly been true for Tai, Matt, and me at least."

Without warning, Mimi shot up, standing straight with a disbelieving look. "So you mean that the rest of us may be having these like, weird things happen to us like Tai and Matt?" she practically demanded.

"Yeah..."

"This is crazy, it's like me saying, 'I want this beach to be covered with flowers' and it actually happening!" Mimi cried out, with a slight whine of hysteria.

Then without warning, a tulip bud popped out of the sand by her feet, growing and blooming into a full, yellow tulip flower.

Everyone gaped.

Mimi looked down at the flower, and after a pregnant pause, she stepped over the flower and sat back down in front of it. "I guess I'll be quiet now..." she said with a nervous laugh. "It's interesting how I was thinking about the tulip in the first place..."

Obviously, now the other Digidestined were somewhat determined to figure out what kind of abilities they had, and what sort of things they would be able to do.

Of course, Nicole's comments about the Legendaries and Dark Lords, as well as the prophecy put everyone on edge. She was surprised to hear that the Digidestined and digimon had heard their share of prophecies before, and were therefore interested in this new one.

"This prophecy... the bit about the Dark Lords reminds me of the four Dark Masters," TK commented.

Nicole, Stellath, and the pokémon looked at each other. "Um, who were they?" Venusaur asked, his large flower ruffling a bit.

Everyone else shuddered in memory. "Four very evil mega level digimon who conquered the Digiworld," Gatomon replied simply.

"We got to fight and defeat them," Sora added on. "It was fortunate that we had two megas of our own to combat them."

At this, Agumon and Gabumon, who were sitting next to each other, grinned and gave each other hi-fives. Tai and Matt also sat up a little straighter, obviously quite proud of having been able to help their partners digivolve up to the mega level in the first place.

Then Kari sat up and pointed out, "But we wouldn't have been able to defeat Piedmon without TK and Patamon."

"Yeah, that's true," Biyomon nodded.

"Otherwise, we'd all still be keychains!" Tentomon exclaimed making expansive gestures with his short pincers.

All the Digidestined and digimon laughed ruefully, remembering that incident. The others just glanced at each other and shrugged, guessing that again, this event must have happened in the past. Then those laughing sobered down, trying to think more along the lines of the prophecy.

"Hey, there was that line about those four who would combat directly..." Izzy mused, drawing some lines idly in the sand. He found himself making a picture of his crest, at which he smiled in a nostalgic manner before seeming to come to a conclusion about something. "It mentioned, Friendship, Victory, Loyalty, and Queen. So Matt's one of them..."

Matt bolted upright, staring at Izzy. "Wait, what do you mean, I'm one of them?"

Izzy pointed at the crest he had drawn in the sand. "You have the Crest of Friendship, right? So, if the four who are going to combat directly are all identified by one of those four words, you're obviously the one who fits with 'Friendship'. Gabumon is probably another one just because he's your partner and he's so loyal to you anyway."

Everyone stared in awe at Izzy for a brief moment, before giving out shouts of congratulations. "Izzy, you're a genius, you know that?" Tai grinned, applauding.

"You always say that," Izzy answered, trying to hide a smile of pleasure at being complimented.

The only people somewhat in shock were Matt and Gabumon. They glanced at each other, feeling the weight of Izzy's words slowly settle down onto them. "Somehow, we always get pulled into these things, huh?" Matt commented, feeling somewhat like a ball of lead at the moment.

"It seems so," came Gabumon's slightly shocked reply.

At that moment, Raichu raised her paw. "Question! What do you mean by crests? Is it something to do with the Digiworld?"

The Digidestined and digimon looked around at each other, unsure of how to put their answer. The idea of the crests was something that they had accepted, but explaining they always found it somewhat hard to explain it.

Then Tai pointed at Izzy. "You do the explaining, Knowledge boy."

Izzy sighed, wondering yet somehow knowing just how Tai had come up with that nickname. "Well, our crests are like the physical embodiments of a particular personality trait that really defines each of the eight of us Digidestined. While our digimon can naturally digivolve up to Champion level with the help of a digivice, we didn't have enough energy to help them past that to the Ultimate and Mega levels. So, with the crests, whenever we exhibit that personality trait or when we have come to terms with it enough, we can channel that energy through the crest to help our digimon digivolve." Then he looked down with a slight gaze of resignment. "Well, actually the crests were destroyed in the final battle two years ago, so we don't have them anymore. Fortunately, by that time, the power of the crests were within us and we didn't need them physically. And about nine months later, we even gave up that power to ensure that the Digiworld had protection. But we still remember what our crests were, and it affects us to this day."

Scyther nodded in understanding. "I see. So what are your crests, then?"

Izzy shrugged. "Well, Tai just mentioned mine. I have the crest of Knowledge."

"And I have Friendship," Matt interjected slightly, aware that the pokémon, Stellath, and Nicole probably knew this by now.

Tai grinned when the non digi-related group looked at him. "I've got the crest of Courage."

"It means that he's stubborn and reckless," Joe answered offhandedly, resulting in a shout of indignation from Tai, which caused everyone else to laugh. "Anyway, I have Reliability."

"Mine's Love," Sora added on, smiling.

"And I have Sincerity," Mimi also said, smiling as she idly played with the tulip behind her. She was still somewhat in shock, surprised by the fact that she had made it grow in the first place.

"Yeah, and she's always sincere!" TK commented with a bright grin. "Mine is the crest of Hope."

"And then there's me, with the crest of Light," Kari finished.

All the pokémon plus Nicole nodded in understanding, with Stellath thinking to herself. Then the dragon sighed and curled up her wings into a little ball around herself, from where she sat perched on Charizard's head.

From there, everyone sat for a moment, trying to think about what else could identify people for the last two words from the prophecy. The entire thing made it seem something like a riddle that had to be solved.

After the silence, Joe sat up, rubbing the back of his head, unsure of what he was about to ask. "Uh, so... do any of you guys have certain things that describe you?"

"Yup," Charizard immediately answered, waving a claw casually while twitching his tail, "See, there's Nicole, who's scary, Stellath is practical, Haunter is funny, Raichu is hyper, Venusaur is knowledgeable, Blastoise is sarcastic and at times really annoying, Scyther is really nice, and I'm the cool one."

Blastoise got up and glaring hard at the fire pokémon, pointed her water cannons at him pertaining to the comment about herself, while everyone else stared in disbelief.

Charizard raised both claws up in the air defensively. "Hey, I'm kidding! Although a lot of it can be true."

Stellath made a strange growl in her throat and whapped Charizard's head with her tail. While Charizard looked indignant, Stellath sighed, turning to Kari.

"I noticed something when you were all saying your names and crests," the golden dragon commented. "Kari, can you say your name and crest? Full name?"

Kari blinked. "They're the same thing," she answered, not quite understanding what Stellath was trying to make clear.

All the pokémon and Nicole looked confused. "Um, how does that work?" Scyther asked, speaking aloud the thoughts of that group.

Kari sighed. "Well, my name's Hikari. And so..."

Before she could continue, Venusaur suddenly stomped, a gaze of understanding on his face. "I get it! Because this world translates practically everything depending on how you listen to it, if we listen closely, we can find what names mean! And in Kari's case, Hikari is her full name, but if you think about it translated, that's what all the Japanese people are saying when they say the word 'light'! Hikari is light!"

The Digidestined and digimon all glanced at each other and nodded with understanding, although to them, what Venusaur had pointed out had been known to them, since they were native speakers of Japanese. Matt sighed. "All right then, so if we say Hikari - "

The others listened closely. Sure enough, it translated to the word light in their ears.

Everyone looked at each other, before Raichu jumped up into the air, cheering. "Whoo! We're right!" she shouted picking up one of Venusaur's front legs and dancing with it.

Charizard grinned. "See what I mean?" he snickered, pointing at Raichu.

Raichu stopped dancing and turned to Charizard with a devilish look to her face. She put her front paws on her hips, flicking her long whip-tail dangerously while letting her cheeks spark.

Again, Charizard held up both claws defensively. "Okay, okay!"

Raichu stopped her threatening gaze and returned to doing a little dance on the sand by Venusaur's foot.

The Digidestined and digimon all glanced at each other at the behavior of the pokémon, but said nothing. A couple took quick looks at Nicole, who seemed perfectly used to the jabbering of her non-human friends.

Playfully, Sora turned to Tai. "Hey Tai, say your full name slowly," she requested innocently.

Tai saw no reason why not to. "Okay. Ta-i-chi. Taichi."

Although all the Japanese speakers already knew the correlation, the others could only listen and blink when they realized what his name meant.

Nicole blinked and raised an eyebrow. "Thick one?"

Sora grinned as she glanced back over to Tai, who was giving everyone a confused look as to why they were turning red with held in laughter. "Suits you, Tai."

Tai blushed when it hit him. "Sora! That's not funny!"

Charizard listened carefully to when Tai said Sora's name. Then he stared in revelation. "Hey Sora! You name means sky!"

Sora nodded, smiling. "Yup."

"Guys," Joe said with a serious tone, trying to bring some order back to the general atmosphere. "As amusing as this all is, we're still no closer to figuring out who else those 'Chosen Ones' are."

"But Joe, you never know! This could be useful!" Gomamon protested, tugging on Joe's pant leg.

The entire group sat for a few moments, unsure of whether to continue on the train of thought, or think of other such things.

The silence was interrupted by a very loud yawn coming from Charizard, who had widened his jaws considerably as he inhaled, before letting out a lot of smoke through his mouth. He settled back into his resting position, glancing around with half-open eyes.

Nicole narrowed her eyes as she took a look at Charizard, before taking a few moments to check on the well being of the other pokémon. Venusaur had set himself down in the sand, and was alternating opening one eye at a time while allowing the other to rest; Scyther was rubbing her eyes carefully with the back of one of her blades; Blastoise just looked drowsy; Raichu's ears were drooping even though she was still slightly hyper; and Haunter never needed to sleep so he looked fine. Even a glance at Stellath told her that the group was sleepy; the dragon was furling and unfurling her wings, stretching and blinking a lot, as though she didn't want to relax and let herself rest.

Nicole sighed, looking up at the late afternoon sun. She remembered it being early evening when she had gone down to the park, which of course had been hours ago because of the fact they had popped up in Japan and ended up in this strange world...

Then it hit her.

She immediately took a watch out of her pocket (because she had been too lazy earlier to put it on) and checked the time. Her jaw dropped. _Why am **I** not tired? Oh dear Mew..._

She placed it back into her pocket, not really feeling a need to put it on at the moment. Then she stood up and turned to face the pokémon and Stellath. "Really sorry to break this up, but..." she began, before taking a deep breath. "Evidently, this world has the same time difference as America from Japan. So, Team! If you need to sleep, go ahead. It's past one in the morning U.S. time."

Five pokémon and one dragon let their eyes widen, and stared at each other in shock. Then in unison, they all stood and left the circle to find a nice warm place to sleep in the sand.

Haunter gave out a hearty guffaw. "I feel so lucky," he grinned, being the only pokémon left in the circle. Being a ghost type, he had no need of sleep.

Unsurprisingly, it was Izzy among the Digidestined who realized this. This enlightenment only served to increase his interest in the pokémon, due to his strong curiosity and want for knowledge.

Then, with a shrug, Tai stood up. "I guess that since six of our group has left to sleep, we should break the meeting and go get dinner. We'll leave tomorrow to go search in the forest for this Legendary..." he broke off and looked at Nicole, unsure of the names.

Nicole sighed, feeling slightly uncomfortable at what she could tell was the unwritten consent of everyone else of Tai's leadership. He was the leader of the Digi group after all, so it made sense, but she had her own team to worry about as well. Quietly, she answered, "Moltres, the Legendary fire bird pokémon, who is said to be found in a forest... fire..." she suddenly faltered at the words 'forest fire'.

Everyone else also slowly let their faces pale at those words. Slowly, the meaning of what had been said sunk into everyone, as they realized what sort of danger this resulted in.

Wordlessly, Matt picked up a small branch and handed it to Tai, giving him a pointed look. Tai lit it on fire, and blinked, unsure of what else Matt had wanted him to do.

Matt groaned. "Put it out, of course!"

"Oh yeah, right," Tai mumbled, before focusing on the piece of wood. The flame immediately snuffed out.

There was a collective sigh from around the group, as though a bated breath of tension had been released into relief. Tai blinked and stared at everyone. "What was that for?" he asked, confused.

"You can control the fire," Matt muttered irritably. "Think for once."

It took a moment for the answer to hit Tai. He realized that by his ability to control the fire, he could possibly stop any threat that the forest fire would cause (if that was really how they had to find Moltres). He suddenly felt very stupid. "Oh," he said helplessly.

"But let's please search for potential fiery birds without the forest fire," Joe suddenly interjected, voicing his own concern.

"Or Tai could light the entire forest on fire, because that would be a forest fire, and we can look in there!" Gomamon shouted his idea before Joe could go on any further.

Joe glared at his partner. "Didn't I just say 'without the forest fire'?" he snapped back, unable to believe what his partner was saying.

"But if you can only find Moltres in a forest fire, then you have to have one!" Gomamon retorted.

"Stop!"

Everyone turned to TK, who was sighing and rubbing his temples. "How about we follow Joe's idea first, then switch to Gomamon's if Joe's doesn't work?" he suggested.

There was a moment of awed silence.

Then Patamon, who had returned to his spot on TK's head (though minus the hat) grinned. "See, I told you that you've grown up!"

Tai then nodded, resuming his usual leader role. "All right then. We're spending the night on the beach, and tomorrow morning we head into the forest. So, let's get dinner and start camping out, guys!"

With a whoop of acknowledgment, everyone broke from their clustered group to go start on dinner things and such, leaving a slightly bewildered Haunter and uncomfortable Nicole sitting together.

Nicole was uncomfortable because of the entire leader problem. _But I'm a leader too! What am I now, a messenger Pidgey?_ She thought irritably. _Oh, I can't wait for our first battle, then I can get back to commanding my team..._

The thought of competition and battling again made Nicole smile, remembering the rush of giving commands, and adrenaline pumping through her blood, giving her the strength to win. The feelings of camaraderie with the team, the times spent fighting together, the knowledge used in supporting each other, and the complete emotion of victory flashing around them, the glory, the success, the accomplishment...

Victory was always a wonderful feeling, something that helped Nicole move out of her slight angry state. She finally stood straight, shaking her head free of the frustration that had been plaguing her the past few minutes.

"Hey Nicole, I'm going to go use Hypnosis on the team. Scyther's groaning about some sleep-deprivation induced headache – no joke, those are her exact words – and Blastoise is complaining about Charizard's snores," Haunter suddenly said, glancing over to where the pokémon had made their resting place. Nicole knew that Haunter could sense and hear better than she could, and she couldn't sense anything wrong with Haunter's intentions (him and his penchant for pranks), so she nodded in approval.

With that, Haunter left to his self-proclaimed duty, while Nicole stood by herself for a moment, pondering what to do.

* * *

Hours later, when night had fallen and stars sprinkled the sky, after a day of strange events (The fire of Tai, Matt's psychic powers, and Mimi's ability to control plants, it seemed), everyone lay peacefully slumbering about the beach, with Joe and Gomamon on watch. The two of them bickered while sitting at the campfire (courtesy of Tai), glancing around every so often to make sure no evil monster was coming to destroy the group. 

They failed to notice a shadow behind them, growing larger and slowly encompassing them.

In a whisper, a word was spoken, and the two of them instantly fell asleep.

"All right, it's done," Haunter announced, turning towards the person who had commanded him to do the deed.

Nicole sighed as she quietly got up from where she had been feigning sleep against Charizard, brushing off sand and a few bits of ash. Then she quietly began sneaking around the camp, to each and every being there.

Matt was the closest, curled up with Gabumon as a pillow while keeping one hand on TK, so she began with him. Carefully, Nicole placed a hand on his forehead, concentrating on releasing her own energy. Slowly, she felt the energy circle within her, releasing in bursts of blue light that made her body flicker. Ignoring this, she focused on placing some into the boy she was touching.

She felt slightly tired and a bit weaker once she was done, but nonetheless, she was content with her action. Matt was now somewhat stronger in his gift.

Silently, she did the same with each and every member of the group, from all the humans, to the digimon, Stellath, and even the pokémon. By the end, she felt very tired and ready to sleep as she approached Haunter.

Haunter gave her a pointed look of concern. "You're weakening yourself, you know."

Nicole shook her head. "I would rather train myself into becoming powerful than cheat and suddenly _be_ powerful, like has suddenly happened in this world. Besides," she winked at her ghost friend, "This means that the energy has been spread out, everyone is stronger, and so if we end up getting attacked, we're more likely to win."

Haunter groaned as Nicole approached him. "Is that all you think about, battling? What about games and fun stuff?"

"That too," Nicole replied nonchalantly, reaching forward to touch Haunter. To her slight surprise, she found that her hand went right through the pokémon. She frowned as she dropped her hand. "Haunter, please make yourself temporarily solid."

Haunter did so, with a look of incredulity. He stared at her dropped hand. "You foresaw my trick!"

Nicole laughed as she touched her pokémon, focusing. "I've lived with you for about six years now, you'd think I'd be wary about getting my hand stuck inside of you!"

It was true. Haunter had a tendency to like to become solid right as someone was partially through him, causing the unfortunate being to become stuck in Haunter.

With a weak flicker, Nicole felt some energy flow into Haunter. She felt fatigued and exhausted, as though she had not slept for days on end. Slowly, she felt herself flop on the ground, too tired to move further.

Haunter sighed as he picked up his trainer, moving her back to where she had been pretending to sleep earlier. "You overexerted yourself," he admonished. "Plus, with you and your insomniac tendencies and the fact that you already have your sleep schedule messed up - "

"All the sleep thing means," Nicole stated, "Is that I will not have nearly as much trouble adjusting to this new time zone as the rest of the team will. I actually have to thank the fact that I stayed up all night earlier."

Haunter glared, something he only did when he was concerned about someone (usually Nicole). "Okay fine. Anyway, I'll watch like I usually do, you sleep."

"And I'll let you know if I have any dreams I want you to eat tomorrow."

"Like usual."

It was something of routine that if she had a specific, rather stupid dream that she really didn't want to remember, she would let Haunter put her to sleep and eat it. In some ways, the ghost pokémon was the reason she could keep sane at times, despite he being a rather insane pokémon at times. Plus, Haunter had always done night-watch for Nicole and the team during the days of the pokémon journey, which was why the idea of the Digidestined taking shifts during the night seemed somewhat surprising, yet understandable. She hadn't been able to convince Tai out of it, and the boy had just assigned Joe to it and asked the glasses wearing boy to wake him up later.

Nicole set her teeth slightly. Despite the fact that he must have known what he was doing, Tai just plain annoyed her...

The thankful word of _Hypnosis_ from Haunter released her from her thoughts and worries, letting her go on into peaceful slumber.

* * *

This Chapter's NG: 

_Lots of Fire and Tai Loses It_

* * *

Still unable to believe the sudden show of strange powers, Tai turned to the side and saw a small bunch of seaweed that had washed up on shore. He glared at it, and imagined the entire thing going up in flames. 

A moment later, the piece of seaweed became a mini bonfire, before turning into small bits of ash.

Tai gaped. Then he turned to Matt, who was also gaping.

Then, Tai suddenly grinned with an insane look on his face. Matt broke off his gaping stare, suddenly confused as to why Tai had gained a sense of, as he could only put it, _freakiness_.

"Fire... fire... ahahahahaha... pretty flames..." Tai was mumbling, making cackling sounds and rubbing his hands together.

"Tai, stop it. You're insane," Matt tried desperately to calm his best friend down and stop him from doing anything stupid.

At that, Tai burst out into horribly loud, devilish laughter that attracted the attention of just about everyone on the beach. He began running around screaming "FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!" at the top of his lungs, crashing into various people ("Hey, watch the shirt! It's dry-clean only!" yelled Mimi) and setting random objects alight ("AAAHH! MY LAPTOP CASE!" screeched Izzy). Matt turned to Gabumon, and together they began chasing after the insane boy who had become a danger to himself.

Then, a large shadow appeared over the beach. The draconic creature looked down, saw the source of the commotion, and promptly sat atop Tai, successfully squashing the boy and stopping him from causing any further damage.

Lugia sweatdropped. "_I hope someone with this unstable a mind is not in charge of this group..._"

Everyone shifted uncomfortably. Lugia just sweatdropped again.


	6. The Lightning Demon Attacks

Disclaimer: I own neither Pokemon nor Digimon, but I do own all original characters such as Stellath, Nicole, and the newly introduced villain.

A/N: Wow, I was motivated. I am actually committed to finishing this story, despite my long intervals of not updating... and despite that I started this in 6th grade many many years ago. Major differences from the original include that there was no villain, no battle, just everyone running through the forest trying to get out of it. I thought I would just introduce one of the main villains here.

And I hope the NG is all right. I think this chapter is relatively dramatic and could use just a little bit of comic relief at the end.

* * *

**Chapter 5**

_The Lightning Demon Attacks_

The next morning began with a bang. Scyther was the first to awaken, and she had begun doing some basic blade practice to warm herself up for the starting day. Of course, this meant that the light sleeper Venusaur had quickly awoken as well, though he didn't move from his spot. It was only when Haunter decided to play a ghostly prank involving fish and rocks on Venusaur that the poor plant pokémon bellowed in shock and literally jumped in the air. This resulted in him landing on the tails of both Raichu and Charizard. The ranges of their responses reached much further than the area the pokémon were in.

Needless to say, no one was too pleased with Haunter.

Aside from the explosive wakeup call, nothing else very interesting occurred that morning, aside from various beings complaining about how their hair stood on end, or how their clothes were now singed. The Digidestined and digimon, still groggy from awakening much earlier than they normally would have, wordlessly began munching on some of the fish that had been dried out the day before.

Then Tai had a realization.

"Joe," he began , as his face slowly contorted with the expression of awful truth, "You didn't wake me up last night."

Joe suddenly froze as he realized the exact same thing. "Oh no," he said quietly, burying his face in his hands. "I – I... whoops?"

"You fell asleep?" Tai asked, extremely un-amused, crossing his arms and glaring at Joe with a stern expression on his face. "Even with Gomamon!"

"Hey!" Gomamon called over indignantly from where he sat conversing with Biyomon.

Tai continued to glare at Joe, finally rolling his eyes. "You're lucky we weren't attacked."

Then Haunter barged into the conversation. "Of course we weren't attacked, I was watching everything!" Then he gave a cackling laugh. "Besides, I'd scare half the attackers away or something!"

Tai turned to stare at Haunter, while Joe also lifted his head up to do the same. "How does that work?" Joe asked skeptically.

"I'm a ghost-type. I don't sleep," Haunter answered simply.

Tai immediately stood from his place in the sand, and walked over the pokémon. Then he stuck out a hand and tried to touch Haunter.

He received a bit of a shock as his hand went right through.

Haunter's grin only widened. He began cackling with a deep, almost evil tone.

The eyes of the other five pokémon, Stellath, and Nicole widened considerably as they recognized the old prank. Immediately, they all shrieked out, "TAI, MOVE YOUR HAND! NOW!"

"Too late," Haunter answered cheerfully. The Poké group groaned and smacked their foreheads in unison.

Tai blinked, not sure about what was going on, and tried moving his hand. To his horror, he found that he couldn't even twitch his fingers. "Wh-what?" he tried shaking his entire arm, and found that Haunter shook along with it. Then he took his other hand and cautiously brought it to Haunter as well, finding the pokémon suddenly solid (or as solid as a ghost can become).

He stamped his foot out of pure frustration. "This isn't funny!"

"You're the one putting yourself in me," Haunter answered innocently.

"Let me go!"

Haunter only cackled, and let his large tongue roll out of his mouth. Right on top of it was what looked like a bomb, straight from all those Nintendo games Tai loved playing.

Tai widened his eyes as he saw that the fuse of the bomb had been lit. He quickly squeezed his eyes shut, preparing to duck and cover from the oncoming explosion.

SPLOOSH.

Bombs definitely did not sound like that when they exploded.

Tai and Haunter both stood in stock silence, dripping wet and somewhat shocked. As water trickled down his face, Tai opened an eye to glance at an equally surprised Haunter, whereupon he saw the bomb on the tongue fade away, as though it had been an illusion. Haunter just gazed past Tai to the person behind him.

Tai turned his head, to see Joe standing with a hand stretched out, a stunned look on his face. Even further behind him stood the entire Digi team, staring at Joe in disbelief.

Then Tai wildly shook his head, sprinkling the already soaked Haunter with some more water droplets. He grinned wryly at Joe. "Well, I guess we know what your power is."

"... Yeah..." Joe mumbled, lowering his hand and staring at the ground.

Behind him, Gomamon bounded up, a playful look in his eyes. "Think on the bright side! We have what you were looking for yesterday, a fresh water source!"

At that, Joe perked up. "Hey, you're right Gomamon!" he suddenly pounded a fist into his palm, realization brightening his face. "So we aren't going to have to worry about dehydration, and Tai can even boil it for us!"

"Or me," Charizard commented from the sideline in a bored tone, inadvertently spitting out a couple fish bones while flicking his flaming tail.

Joe winced slightly. "Or you," he said.

The rest of the morning passed without incident, by which time the Digi group plus Nicole felt the need for caffeine and the others felt almost edgy, wanting to get going. Knowing that they had a mission, a definite difference from the beginning of all of their adventures, gave them motivation to start working, to do the job they had been sent into the world to complete.

As various digimon and humans packed up the fish, while the others finished cleaning up the remainders of the camp, Nicole remembered something, and placed her hand into her pocket, fingering two round objects, the stones she had received from Lugia. She felt somewhat curious, wondering why there were only two stones when there were four 'Chosen' ones.

Briefly, she recalled the entire conversation with Lugia, and suddenly remembered that Lugia had said _she_ was a Chosen one. Although she had been naturally inclined to believe the great pokémon, somehow she did not find herself completely convinced.

_A Mew heart does not mean I'm special, _she quickly told herself, wondering for the millionth time what would have happened had she not had it. After a quick inner debate, she decided that she had better just give the stones to the only other known people of the prophecy.

Swiftly, she strode up to where Matt was sitting in the warm sand tying a large bundle of fish together, and dropped the two stones in front of him. Matt jumped slightly at her sudden presence, and looked up at her in confusion. "You need something?"

Nicole sighed impatiently. "Look in front of you."

Matt did so, his eyes widening when he noticed the teardrop symbol floating inside each of the hollow, transparent stones. "Whoa," he exclaimed, dropping his load of fish to pick up the two stones. He stared for a moment, examining them both. "I'm guessing these are important?"

Nicole nodded. "Yeah, Lugia said to gain the signs of the other Guardians of this world. She's already given her sign." She motioned to the teardrop symbol. "Since you're a Chosen, you're going to need them – and before you ask," she added, seeing Matt open his mouth, "there are only two. Give one to Gabumon for me, will you?"

Matt closed his mouth and nodded, for lack of anything better to do.

Nicole grinned. "Thanks. Oh, and one more thing. Do you remember that song that Lugia sang right when she flew over us towards the sea yesterday?"

Matt put a hand to his chin and tried to think. He could recall that it had made shivers go up his spine from just the melancholy it portrayed, but he couldn't remember the exact tune. He shook his head, "No, not really"

Nicole sighed and said, "Okay, in that case, listen."

Quietly, she began humming a soft melody, a minor, almost mournful tune. Matt listened carefully, taking in the fact that it seemed like a haunting elegy, trying to take in the progression of notes that made the song individual. He couldn't help but think that it was very simple, yet beautiful at the same time.

At the end of the song, Matt nodded, playing it over again in his mind. "All right, I got it." Then he glanced at Nicole. "You have a pretty good voice."

"Thanks," she grinned again. "By the way, if you run into Moltres, you're gonna' have to play that for him in some way. See you in a few."

With that, she jogged past him to check up Charizard, who seemed to be vocalizing his need to hunt.

Matt blinked. _She's sure direct..._

Within a few minutes, everyone had finished packing, the campfire had been doused and covered (courtesy of Joe and his newfound power), and group had convened in a large huddle close to the higher part of the beach, close to the edge of the forest.

As usual for the Digi group, Tai stood before everyone to address them. Although some people might call him oblivious, he actually paid close attention to everything – especially because the adventure two years earlier, since the smallest detail might be something important in making a decision. At the moment, the thing that caught his focus the most was that all the pokémon had crowded around Nicole, and they all glanced at her from time to time. He narrowed his eyes slightly, not sure what to think of her.

Then he quickly shook his head to rid himself of any random thoughts, and spoke to the entire group. "All right, so we're heading into the forest to look for Moltres, right guys?" he crossed his arms, grinning at everyone.

"Yep, and to alight it as well!" Gomamon shouted from where he was.

Joe turned in wide eyed shock to stare at his partner. "Since when have YOU become a pyro?" he shouted in astonishment.

Gomamon grinned and waved his flippers nonchalantly. "Since you learned how to dump water on things."

"Right on, dude!" Charizard suddenly marched up with a teethy grin. "Pyros unite, right?"

Gomamon glanced up at Charizard's huge figure and grinned back. "Yep!"

Scyther smacked her forehead with the flat of her blade. "Oh dear Mew, not another one," she groaned.

Charizard put his claws on his hips. "Any problem with pyros?" he challenged with a playful look on his face.

Scyther glared. "Yeah. I'm a bug type. Bugs and fire DO NOT MIX!"

Charizard immediately had an apologetic look on his face. "Oh yeah... I forgot."

Scyther shook her head and turned away from the dragon like pokémon. "Hmph. Anyway, carry on Tai."

Behind her, Charizard scratched his head looking very sorry, concerned, and somewhat crestfallen. Not far away from the two, Nicole made a mental note of it.

Tai cleared his throat. "Okay, so basically we're going in. Don't ask me to light anything on fire, I'm sure our resident pyros will handle that." He stopped for a moment, contemplated his own position on the fire issue, and then added, "On second thought, just don't ask me."

Close to him, Sora and Matt both snorted.

"Anyway," Tai continued, ignoring his two friends, "Let's keep an eye out for any large fiery birds, and off we go!"

With a loud whoop from the digimon in particular, the Digi group began trekking up the beach and towards the forest. Behind them, the other group just sat for a moment, glancing at each other.

Finally, Charizard broke the silence. "But you... don't just... LOOK for Moltres... it doesn't work that way..."

Nicole knew Charizard felt uneasy about searching for such a legendary fire pokémon, especially as a fire type himself. Sighing, she reached up to pat his shoulder. "I'm sure it'll turn out fine," she said reassuringly. "They don't know very much about pokémon, after all."

With a resigned sigh, she beckoned to the pokémon, and together they followed the Digi group.

* * *

Venusaur poked at a tree. "This shouldn't be here," he remarked dryly, snapping off a branch and glancing at the needles. "Makes me wonder what kind of world we're in."

From ahead in the group, Izzy commented back. "I once thought the same thing when we were in the Digiworld. It's possible that we're in another type of medley world much like that one."

"Medley worlds are weird."

"We should find some way to have you and your team visit the Digiworld. It's definitely weirder than home..." Izzy paused and glanced at Tentomon, whose expression was completely unreadable. "At least for the humans."

Surrounded by trees, the large group of monsters and humans finally came to a large clearing. With a large collective sigh, everyone stood still to regain their bearings and relax a little from the long trek.

Biyomon flew up over the trees at Izzy's request, and in a few moments returned with the news that she could barely see the beach, and in the far distance opposite, she had seen what looked like a desert. At that point, Mimi crossed her arms and plopped herself on a log.

Everyone gave her quizzical looks.

"We aren't getting anywhere," she answered to the various stares, "The forest is just, like, huge. And we've been in here for how long? It's hard looking for something when we're not in quite the right kinds of places..."

Tai tried answering back defensively. "It's a giant fiery bird. How hard can it be to find?"

Nicole snorted in amusement.

In return, everyone except for the somewhat downcast pokémon turned to stare at her.

Tai glared. He was starting to find her a bit annoying. "What's so funny?"

Nicole shook her head in a pitying manner. "You can't just look for Moltres, you have to wait for it to deem you worthy of its presence. Unless you plan to capture it for some reason, which is of course a pretty horrible thought."

Tai threw his hands up into the air in exasperation. "Fine, we're not getting anywhere, and apparently we can't actually find Moltres. What brilliant idea do you have to help us find this Legendary creature?"

"Besides lighting the forest on fire? I don't have one." With that, she turned straight to Charizard and asked, "Charizard, what do you think?"

The large dragon-like pokémon blinked in surprise. "What do _I_ think?"

Tai rolled his eyes. "Sure, turn to someone else to ask."

Nicole eyed Tai angrily. "Charizard would know best, that's all."

"Whatever."

The two gave each other mean looks before stalking away towards their respective groups.

Everyone watched the exchange in silence, wondering just where the entire conflict had come into place.

Finally, Charizard shook his head vigorously as though trying to remove extraneous thoughts from his head. Then he smiled uneasily, trying to look as unthreatening as possible. "Okay, how 'bout I lead for now, and I'll do the best I can to find Moltres, 'kay?"

Tai shrugged. "All right, I guess that works... uh, fello pyro?" he added weakly, as he quickly took into account Charizard's size and firepower.

The pokémon chuckled, seemingly knowing fully well just what kind of image his presence made. "Thanks then, flame boy."

He took to the air, flying above the trees to get a sense of direction and where to go. After a few minutes of unintelligible growling and the occasional bit of roaring, Charizard returned to the ground where he gave everyone a toothy, cocky grin. "Okay then troops, let's head on out."

Without any complaint, the group began to move again, only this time they continued behind the large pokémon.

Matt took the moment to run up to Tai, and whisper into his ear. "Tai, I have this really weird feeling we're being watched."

Tai blinked and glanced at Matt. "Is it a good vibe?" he asked back.

Matt shook his head. "No. It's like... something bad is going to happen, but it'll lead us in the right direction."

Tai just stared at Matt, who in turn shrugged. "Blame the psychic-ness," the blond replied.

Tai shuddered. "Well... keep using it then."

"Will do..."

* * *

"Something's wrong."

With looks of vague surprise on their faces, everyone turned towards Nicole and Matt, who had spoken at the same time. "Did you two plan that or something?" Gatomon asked jokingly. Her eyes however held a bit of concern, something that did not go missed by anyone.

Matt glanced over at Nicole, who seemed more silent than usual, and decided to go ahead and explain. "We're being followed, and whoever's following us is not going to help us," he said simply. "We should keep on our guard."

No sooner had he said that, a clap of lightning struck the ground right in front of him.

Everyone stood still for a moment, before the realization struck them.

Instincts pushed the digimon to circle around the humans, each in the attacking position and ready to either defend when necessary or digivolve at slightest notice. The pokémon did the same, each one tense and ready to act, though each kept an ear out for any commands.

Stellath darted around the silent circle, alert and keeping a close watch on everything. She glanced over to Nicole. – Shield. –

- I'm on it. I'm waiting for the next attack. -

- And it's right... –

Nicole's eyes glowed blue.

A massive onslaught of electricity came down on the group, roaring with power and crackling. It met with a blue, glowing shield that had created a dome around everyone, and the lightning flashed as it continued to rain down relentlessly. The impact shook the ground, and it seemed the shield barely held the attack from making contact with its true targets.

Outside, trees and foliage disintegrated into piles of ash, others became charred, and even more were set aflame. Energy continued to rain down, destroying everything around the dome as it tried to push through.

Those within the dome huddled together, not sure what to make of the new development, and they did only what they could do – wait out the attack. Tai held onto Kari tightly, as did Matt with TK, trying to give whatever comfort and security there was left. Nicole seemed the obvious source of the defense, as her eyes were glowing and body almost humming with power, and as a result everyone could only watch as she held the shield up. The digimon and pokémon stayed in their positions, ready to defend the moment the psychic energy died away.

Still, the lightning continued to crackle and pound against the dome. The glowing walls still seemed strong, and Nicole seemed to still be holding her ground fairly well, yet...

Stellath landed on Nicole's shoulder, and let out a slight battle cry as she too began to glow faintly. The walls of the dome thickened, and some of the lightning was repelled, but as a result the onslaught only grew stronger. Everyone had to shield their eyes in some manner, for the flashing outside the dome had come to the point where it surrounded and blinded any who looked directly into it.

Matt glanced over towards the pokémon Master, standing still with her eyes tightly shut now, her body looking stiff and tense in concentration. At closer look, he realized that sweat was beading on her skin, as though the task was taking all her energy...

Then his newfound abilities told him she desperately needed help.

Without any hesitation, Matt tried to focus on the shield.

He found it confusing, with power that he could not enter his own into. He had no idea how to channel his energy into a solid form, or how to strengthen something of someone else's creation, and the amount of mental strength needed for such a task felt overwhelming.

Suddenly, Gabumon was beside him. Even TK was staring slightly, having apparently noticed a bare flickering light come over his brother's body as he tried to focus his energy. The digimon placed a claw on Matt's shoulder, and pointed towards Nicole. "Aim towards her, she'll channel it," he suggested, more in hopes of the idea working than anything else.

Matt thought about trying to push his energy into Nicole, so that she could continue to hold the shield.

Within a few moments, he felt something warm inside him begin trickling out of his body, and apparently heading towards another figure. He felt momentarily weaker and fatigued, but knew that the survival of the group might depend on this push of energy, so he tried to continue focusing...

Without warning, the lightning outside the dome flickered and stopped. Instantly, the world seemed dark, a sharp contrast to the blinding flashes of earlier.

Then the shield faded.

And Nicole collapsed.

Instantly, the pokémon were by her side. Stellath flew back into the air, carefully keeping aloft, while Charizard gently picked Nicole up, nudging her prone body with his nose. "It's okay, you did good," he muttered soothingly.

Beside him, Haunter shook in worry. "I told you that you overexerted yourself last night! Now look at you!"

Nicole propped one eye open. "It's all right," she answered weakly, "But we're still in the middle of a battle, guys."

A glance around the area brought both hope and fear into the hearts of all. The surrounding undergrowth had been completely destroyed, and whatever was left had caught on fire...

And it was quickly catching onto everything else in the forest.

"We need to get out of here _now_!" Sora shouted, immediately grabbing onto her digivice. "Let's airlift everyone out!"

Biyomon nodded, following up on Sora's words. "Let's all get to the desert, we'll be safer there."

The roar of huge flames beginning to surround the area only emphasized the point.

"Biyomon digivolve to... Birdramon!"

Suddenly, Nicole called out with a faint voice, "Watch out, you'll be a huge target..." then she glanced at the circle of pokémon. "Haunter, go with her."

The ghost pokémon saluted and floated off towards the larger digimon.

Sora hopped up onto Birdramon's legs. "Come on! We need to leave!" At that point, she literally grabbed the closest person, Matt, and hauled him by the shirt next to her. "Let's go!"

As everyone scrambled to find a ride, Izzy and Tentomon glanced at each other, as did TK and Patamon. In unison, they all nodded.

"Tentomon digivolve to... Kabuterimon!"

"Patamon digivolve to... Angemon!"

The Poké group's eyes widened at the two new Champion level digimon, but still always battle-ready, Nicole gave more commands. "Raichu, go with Angemon. Scyther, you're with Kabuterimon." Then she sighed. "Stellath, if you're feeling all right, you airlift more people, and... Venusaur and Blastoise, back in the balls."

As Raichu and Scyther left to follow orders, Venusaur and Blastoise stared at Nicole in shock. "You're kidding me!" Blastoise said in disbelief.

Nicole rolled her eyes, despite being almost unable to move and being held in Charizard's arms. "Fine. Venusaur, you go back in and you'll be back out in the desert for defense. Blastoise, go with Stellath. Um... Stellath, can you handle it?"

The dragon replied by growing to the size of a semi-truck.

As Blastoise rumbled off to be held in Stellath's now massive claws, Venusaur gently unfurled a vine and reached towards Nicole's belt. He shared a nod with Charizard before touching the white button on a pokéball, and in a flash of light, he was gone.

Charizard himself glanced around at the rest of Nicole's team, seeing that each pokémon seemed fit and ready to fight if need be. They had to be more prepared than usual, he thought, as he looked down at the limp figure in his arms and looked as though she was dazed and about to pass out. "Take it easy, all right?" he whispered to her, not knowing if she heard him or not.

By the digimon, Gabumon clambered onto Birdramon's leg next to Matt, and held on tightly. At the same time, Tai and Agumon climbed onto the other leg, grabbing on in preparation to leave.

With as much strength as he could muster, Tai focused all his energy on the surrounding flames. The fire died down a little, being held back from continuing towards encompassing the group, and Tai kept trying to concentrate as the others found their rides. Haunter came to float by Birdramon, ready to aid in battle at any given moment.

Joe and Gomamon found their place with Izzy on the back of Kabuterimon, as did Mimi and Palmon. They glanced around sadly at what remained of the forest, watching as the fire consumed various trees and destroyed the underbrush. Mimi coughed as some smoke came blowing into her face, to which Joe tried his best to fan it away. Scyther stood ready to take off, and she helped a little by using her wings to create an air current.

Joe sighed and lifted his hand. Some sprinkles of water began pouring over the flames, but Scyther flew up to him and gently tapped his shoulder with the flat of her blade. "Save the energy," she suggested, "You'll probably need it to help us get out of here."

Kari and Gatomon were with TK atop Angemon, holding onto the great digimon's shoulders while staring at the wreckage around them. All four found themselves sweating the heat of the flames, and as a whole they knew not what to do. Raichu had already climbed up and now sat next to TK, her small body tense and her tail whipping around in preparation.

Tai finally stopped concentrating on the flames, and decided to give the command. "All right everyone, let's move out!"

As a whole, the great creatures launched into the air, leaving behind the destruction caused by the previous attack. They escaped from the forest fire, gradually lifting up high above the trees and the flames. Cherished cool air blew down at them from above, and the strength of the many sets of wings pushed smoke and heat back down and away from the group.

Everyone breathed in the atmosphere with a sigh of relief. Below, a sea of orange and red that continued to move further, catching onto more trees and growth as it spread. With a slightly sorrowful glance, Birdramon called to the others. "Follow me! I'll get us to the desert!"

Wordlessly, the group began after her as she headed towards one dark area, where the flames would not spread. For a few moments, it seemed as though the only sounds were the burning and crackling of wood, the falling of charcoaled trees, and the beating or buzzing of wings. The light of the forest fire illuminated them from below, casting strange shadows across the faces of everyone.

Then something caught the eyes of TK, Kari, and Gatomon atop Angemon.

"There's a flying thing over there," TK commented, staring in the distance.

Kari nodded. "Yeah... maybe it was in the forest and is trying to escape?"

TK looked at her sadly. "Maybe."

Gatomon, with somewhat sharper eyes than the humans, was staring at it a little closer. "Wait... it looks like a bird... it's carrying someone... human looking..."

The flying creature let out a powerful shriek, and began to zoom towards the group.

Almost immediately, the pokémon and Stellath shot their heads in the direction of the shriek. They recognized it.

"It's a Pidgeot!" Blastoise bellowed out, voicing the news to everyone.

Gatomon decided to call out to everyone as well. "It has someone on it!"

That caught everyone's attention.

Charizard glanced down at the bundle in his arms before flying close to where Scyther and Kabuterimon were. As the Digi group eyed Nicole in worry, Charizard turned to the bug pokémon. "If the Pidgeot has someone on it, does that mean it's trained?"

Scyther nodded, her wings buzzing. "Probably. And that means..."

The Pidgeot shrieked and shot towards the group, spreading its wings and then backing away slightly, began to flap them hard.

A huge gust of wind blew into the group, suddenly knocking everyone off balance. Humans and digimon struggled to remain with their rides, both Scyther and Haunter were blown away from those they were to protect, and everyone cried out as the air suddenly pulled and tugged at their bodies, relentlessly trying to tear them apart.

Only from years of training did Charizard manage to use the attack to propel himself towards the Pidgeot. Riding on the wind, he glided forward straight out and opened his mouth to let out a flamethrower.

It dodged, its aerial agility moving it out of the way easily. With a growl, Charizard decided to fly by and attempt to knock it away, and hopefully seeing who the trainer was as well.

Making sure he was securely holding Nicole, he did a backflip in the air, staying upside down as he glided towards the Pidgeot.

The sight almost made him stop, as he came closer and the haunting light of the fire below lit up the Pidgeot and the figure on its back. The pokémon had hints of black and purple running through its feathers, and even its eyes looked strangely deep and dark. The effect of the fire made it seem like shadow in the form of the Pidgeot – either that, or something sinister had engulfed its body.

The fact that it only shrieked out in instinctual cries and never anything intelligible made Charizard even more suspicious.

At that point, he saw the figure on its back.

A man dressed in dark purple robes was muttering to the Pidgeot. His long, yet spiked blond hair blew away from his face by the force of the wind and the motion of his mount, a black cloak streaming out behind him. Yet when he turned to gaze at Charizard, it was the handsome face, the green eyes, and the symbolic crescent tattoo on his forehead that made Charizard's stomach grow cold.

The lightning pendant told the rest.

"You!" Charizard gasped, unable to believe whom he was seeing. "The hell are you doing here?" Then he remembered something, a memory from many years earlier, but still... "This world is where you..."

The man smiled menacingly and held out a hand.

Lightning struck. Charizard roared in pain as he tried to shield Nicole from the onslaught, but the electricity did more than attack; it trapped him in place, where he could not move or escape from the agony of having the energy flowing through his body.

The man and the Pidgeot came closer, the man still holding out hand where he held the lightning entrapping Charizard. With a look of glee, he began talking in suave, yet boasting tones. "Interesting, meeting you and your trainer here." His eyes glanced at Nicole in Charizard's arms. "Hmm. She's grown a little. But I remember her very well."

Then he smiled as he looked into Charizard's blue eyes. "I have long wanted to capture you and make you my own."

Charizard writhed as he tried to overcome the pain and escape from the man's electrical grasp. He let out another roar, this time as a cry of help. His eyes rolled and he gasped as he watched the man pull out a black pokéball and prepare to throw.

A green blur rammed into Pidgeot. The bird pokémon gave a long cry as it tumbled away, while the man shouted in horror as he lost his concentration. The electrical field and lightning faded, and Charizard found the torturous pain dissipate... but it was not until he felt air rushing past his body that he realized he was falling.

Slowly managing to unfurl his sore wings, he turned upwards out of the fall and glided back into the air. He took a good look at the scene around him, as he was sure he had missed some action... such as various bolts of thunder aiming around the entire group, as well as what looked like flying creatures made purely out of electricity.

He looked back to where Pidgeot flew about, leading an agile chase. When he saw who was after Pidgeot, the one who had saved him, he decided that as soon as the group reached someplace safe, he was going to glomp her in gratitude.

Then she buzzed over to him. "Charizard, you okay?" Scyther asked as she gently touched a blade flat to his shoulder.

He nodded tiredly. "Yeah. Thank you." Then he grinned at her. "You deserve a hug and a kiss when we get out of this."

He expected her to whap him on the head like she usually did. To Charizard's surprise, she smiled back. "Just don't crush me," she said, before turning her expression grim again. "Get Nicole to safety, and help everyone else. I'll keep Pidgeot and Jelly Man busy."

Charizard let out a laugh, despite himself. "Call him that to his face."

She winked. "Oh, I will." With that, she buzzed back off to resume chase.

Looking down at the figure still limp in his arms, Charizard gently nudged her with his nose. If she hadn't passed out before the attack, she was certainly unconscious now.

With a breath of determination, he flew off towards the group, to help them to safety.

The group was actually doing quite well in their attempts to hold off the attacks by the time Charizard returned. The smaller Rookie (or Champion in Gatomon's case) digimon were each using their attacks to ward off any bolts of lightning or electrical monsters, helping their rides move a little closer towards the desert. The pokémon were each doing the same thing, trying to protect the humans and still flying digimon as they tried to get to safety.

Some of the humans had also found that they could help as well.

Lightning monsters burst into flame, others were surrounded by blue energy before popping, and others were even diverted away into the fiery forest below by spheres of water. The three boys, although not all on the same digimon, felt their abilities somewhat more powerful and trained than when they had first discovered them.

Even so, both Gabumon and Sora had had to hold Matt back by the shirt to stop him from jumping off of Birdramon and onto Angemon to help the younger Digidestined. Tai had actually tried earlier, and was now reduced to being held somewhat captive in Birdramon's claw. Unwilling to attack a friend just to escape, he had resigned himself to helping against the attack.

Matt finally had enough of it. "Fine fine, I won't jump off! Can you let me go now?" he asked irritably as he grabbed onto Birdramon's leg.

Sora and Gabumon nodded and released.

At that moment, Pidgeot chose to fly straight through the middle of the battle area.

Izzy, seated on Kabuterimon, squinted at the bird pokémon. "Hey, wait, if..." he began muttering to himself as he looked at it carefully. Then he looked over to Joe. "Joe! Wet the bird!"

Everyone else on Kabuterimon stared at him. Joe blinked incredulously. "What?"

"Wet it! Soak it! Something! It's weak against electricity right? Get the thing wet, we get it hit by lightning, and it stops attacking us! And whoever that guy is on its back too."

Charizard flew by just as Izzy shouted out. He called back, "Yeah, get Jelisvan, he's behind the lightning!"

Raichu paled, shrieked, and fell over. "You can't be serious!" she screamed. "Him! How'd he get here!"

"Beats me!" Charizard shook his head, wincing at the memory of his recent encounter. "Listen, I'm getting Nicole to safety – get to the desert pronto! Scy was holding off Pidgeot last I saw. Rai, aim for it good," he saluted, before flapping his wings and speeding towards the desert.

Raichu blinked for a few moments, before turning to Izzy slowly. "How did you know Pidgeot was weak against electric attacks?"

The red-haired boy shrugged. "I don't know, I simply examined the bird as it flew by and somehow knew."

Those on Kabuterimon's back stared at Izzy.

Unfortunately, even while strategies were being planned, the attacks still came. With Pidgeot and Jelisvan in the midst of everything, suddenly the bolts of lightning became more and more accurate. Scyther still chased after Pidgeot in attempts to keep it from targeting everyone else, but while the bird pokémon was distracted, its rider was certainly not.

Even worse, the man looked over to Birdramon and seemed to see exactly where many attacks were coming from. With one hand held out, he pointed at Birdramon's legs, targeting those holding onto her.

The lightning struck without warning. Tai, Sora, Matt, Gabumon, and Agumon all cried out as the electricity ran through them, burning pain tingling across their bodies and forcing them into close huddles. Birdramon could feel what was happening, and she tried to rise into the air to escape the attack and counter, but as she moved...

Apparently under orders, Pidgeot shot forward and rammed Birdramon in the side.

The lightning stopped. Contracted muscles loosened.

Matt fell.

"NO!" Tai, Sora, and Gabumon shouted in horror. Birdramon began to dive down, only to have another bolt of lightning shot directly at her. Others who saw what had happened screamed, and those who could fly tried to escape from the battle zone to catch their falling friend, only to have even more bolts strike directly at them. They were tiring and could not last much longer against the onslaught of electrical energy.

As he fell, Matt could feel the air rushing past his body, heat from the forest fire rising, and his own sense of panic. As the flames grew closer, he could see his life flashing before him, as gravity took him down. _No! I can't die yet! Not now!_ He continued to shout in his mind, as a scream escaped his lips.

Matt could do nothing but flail helplessly in the air. The heat was overwhelming now, but the picture of everything speeding past him only furthered the realization of his own demise.

He could only accept the inevitable. Closing his eyes in unwillingness to see the flaming tree tops and blackened ground, he suddenly found his mind peaceful, as though he knew what to expect, and what was to come.

Yet as he waited for the end, something powerful burst within him. He creaked his eyes open, seeing a blue glowing film that covered his vision, gradually growing until he could see nothing but the light...

Above, denial and anger filled the hearts of all. Haunter and Scyther had both sped forward and been able to stop any more direct attacks by the pair of attackers, but Matt had already disappeared into the sea of flames. With battle cries and shouts of revenge, the entire group was all but trying to destroy the one who had caused the death of their friend.

Kari hugged TK close as the blond boy stared blankly down into the fire of the forest. His entire being seemed in shock, unable to believe what had just happened, and he could only shake his head, whispering, "It can't be... he's not gone... he's my big brother... it's not..."

At that point, those aboard Kabuterimon decided to put their plan into action.

Spheres of water shot at Pidgeot from all directions, forcing it to dodge awkwardly so it would not be hit. It shrieked in frustration as it dived out from beneath a huge ball of water that nearly came splashing down on top of it.

Blastoise could see what Joe was trying to do. She looked up towards Stellath's head. "Stellath! Get me over to that damn bird so I can help kill it!"

Stellath's voice thundered in a ranged tenor. "Leave some for me too."

The golden dragon let her wings push her towards Pidgeot, as it still tried to escape from the bombardment of water. Jelisvan looked both amused and disoriented, for he apparently could see no point in attacking something it was not weak against, yet at the same time he had stopped attacking. All that was left from earlier was the lightning monsters still flying about and growing less in number.

Stellath came from below and started upwards. Blastoise in turn, began to aim her water cannons.

With a great whoosh, a jet of water spurted out, becoming something like a hose trying to catch and soak something moving quickly. Stellath continued various aerial maneuvers as she tried to help Blastoise shoot at the Pidgeot.

Atop Kabuterimon, Joe watched, raised his hand up, and began counting to himself for the right moment. "One... two..."

In conjunction with Blastoise's attacks, Joe finally hit his target, and Pidgeot and Jelisvan both cried out as the water soaked them both.

As the water finally stopped Pidgeot and Jelisvan from going any further, Kabuterimon buzzed forward. "Hold on tight everyone!" he shouted as he prepared to let off his attack.

He reared back, making sure those on his back were still there, and watched as Raichu scrambled up his head and jumped off into the air. From nearby, Blastoise called out, "Kick their asses Rai!"

Kabuterimon and Raichu together attacked.

"Electro Shocker!"

"Thunder!"

The electricity created a booming sound as it hit Pidgeot and Jelisvan, the static energy from it making everyone feel the attack's power. Lightning flashed brightly, making it difficult to see what was happening within to the targets, but everyone could hear over the crackling of shocks and hum of energy, Pidgeot's shrieks of agony.

Then another flash of light beneath the electricity lit the area, only as it faded, another flying creature appeared. It let out a vague cackle as a figure dropped on top of it, holding up two balls – one of them aimed upwards.

The light flashed again from the ball, and the shrieks of Pidgeot were immediately cut off. With that, the electrical attack ended abruptly, leaving Jelisvan atop another flying pokémon looking somewhat amused.

He laughed into the shocked faces of everyone. "Very interesting. Not quite the power I was hoping to see; I'd hoped you would challenge me more. Oh well... it will make any later encounters easier."

With that, he flew away into the darkness, still laughing as he went.

* * *

**This Chapter's NG:**

_Blastoise's Guide on How to Stop the Jelly Man_

Stellath came from below and started upwards. Blastoise in turn, began to aim her water cannons.

With a great whoosh, a jet of water spurted out, becoming something like a hose trying to catch and soak something moving quickly. Stellath continued various aerial maneuvers as she tried to help Blastoise shoot at the Pidgeot.

As the bird continued to fly about, dodging all of Blastoise's attacks, the giant turtle pokémon grew annoyed. "Goddamn bird!" she growled. "Slow down ya stupid thing!"

It of course, did not listen.

At that point, Blastoise began screaming at it.

In the space of five minutes, many languages had been spoken (though unfortunately, everyone could understand them), everyone present stood in shock, TK and Kari's vocabularies had grown tremendously, and even Jelisvan and Pidgeot had stopped in pure astonishment at just how many obscenities they had just heard.

Blastoise used the opportunity to blast them both. Then she stuck out her tongue childishly. "Ha ha Jelly Man!" she shouted, looking as though she would be doing some sort of butt wiggling victory dance were she on the ground.

Behind Blastoise, everyone atop Kabuterimon blinked. "Wow," Mimi said, "Maybe we should curse people out more often."

Then all proceeded as written.


	7. Guardian of Fire

Disclaimer: I own no Pokemon, Digimon, or of the like. I own Stellath and her world.

A/N: This installment is a little short, but it should tie up everything that happened in the last chapter. This chapter was originally very short anyway. Major changes from the original... well, Nicole was stuck in the forest with Matt, but they got separated and she got out and Matt passed out. And a certain pokemon never showed himself to the rest of the group. Plus the usual special powers thing, and the identities of all the people from the prophecy, which was revealed in the original by the end of this chapter (but trust me, the rewrite is much, much better). I'm also trying to add a little more bonding, and some info about Nicole's journey. I've decided that at some point, I'll post up another fic basically detailing what happened on her journey - I did come up with an entire backstory for her, anyway (very important for OCs!)

Regarding the NG, I'll just say this: Charizard IS in character. It's just a side of him we haven't seen yet. The other pokemon just got riled up by him.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 6**

_Guardian of Fire_**  
**

Bright orange flames crackled around him, the black smoke blowing about and filling the precious air. He covered his mouth in hopes of filtering out some of the smoke, and continued to jump over fallen branches and burnt foliage in his attempts to escape.

Matt himself was shocked at how he had managed to survive. He had been falling... and apparently, his latent psychic powers had decided to flare up out of the stressful situation he was in, and had ended up saving his life, as they made him slow down and float to the ground instead of falling to his death.

And now, here he was, in the middle of the flaming forest, and with no idea of how to get out.

It was hard to breathe, what with the oxygen being used up by the fire and leaving him with smoke filled air that he had to filter with the hands over his mouth. Not to mention the sweltering heat; he could feel sweat pouring down his back and soaking his shirt, and his entire location was unbearable to be in.

It was a survival test, and somehow he had to escape.

Matt narrowed his eyes as he looked around for any paths that might be clear and might lead out of the forest. _Okay, latent psychic powers, work! ...Please?_

A flaming tree cracked and began to tumble down. Shouting out in terror, Matt fell and rolled forward out of the way, hearing a loud boom behind him. He covered himself as bits of flaming embers flew in the air from the impact, wincing as he felt burning spots across his back.

For a moment, despair filled his mind. So far he had succeeded against the odds and survived, but how much longer would it last? He knew, as he crawled away from the downed tree, that it would not be long before the flames did consume absolutely everything.

Breathing in smoke, Matt began coughing, feeling his throat constricted. Pushing himself to his hands and knees, he tried to calm himself out of the fit and ignore the burning air.

At once, a thought came to mind. _Moltres... found in a forest fire... needs the song..._

The song Nicole had hummed earlier suddenly began playing in his head, and not quite knowing what to do, he tried imagining it amplified by many times, the sounds spreading out through the forest. To his surprise, he physically heard the tune, in a haunting, inhuman voice without words singing it.

Everything seemed to stop in the time it took for the song to play. The flames held back, the sounds of burning were drowned out, and the world seemed surprisingly peaceful, despite the obvious destruction. The voice sang out mournfully, echoing through the forest in waves of psychic energy, while Matt sat in place, unable to do anything but listen in awe.

Even after the last sounds had died away, the area stood peaceful and calm, as though the rage of the fire had been quelled into a serene submission. It took a few moments for Matt to recover, as inwardly he continue to think to himself that he still had to stay alive and find a way out of the forest. Yet he felt strangely weak and tired at the same time, almost compelled to lie down and fall into a deep rest.

His mind was clouded, but he jumped and recognized why he was feeling that way. _There's no more air down here... I'm not going to burn to death, I'm going to suffocate_, he thought wryly. He forced himself up on his feet, trying to breathe and expand his chest in an effort to survive, and only a shallow burst of air sped in.

Squinting his blue eyes that were dry and hurting, Matt tried to walk away through the burning area as the flames slowly began to pick up back to the previous ferociousness. He choked again as the air that entered his lungs did nothing for him, only increased the fatigue and tiredness within him and made his body ache.

_No... Damnit... this is... not how it's... going to end..._

Finally, Matt fell, unable to breathe and unable to move any further. All his energy was gone, and he could do nothing but lie there and wait for the flames to consume him. He closed his eyes in anticipation of the inevitable.

But wait... flames weren't supposed to tickle gently... they certainly weren't supposed to make him feel better if they were going to burn him to ashes. And... the heat had died down into something bearable, and somehow he found his body feeling more energized as the air came rushing back into his lungs, filling him with life and hope once more...

Taking a chance, Matt opened his eyes.

He gaped at the sight.

A huge, great bird stood over him, shielding his body from the surrounding fire. Yet the bird itself seemed to be a source of flames, with orange tongues and flickers rising off of its wings. It was yellow, though the fire from it gave off a red glow that seemed heartening. Somehow, it radiated a feeling of strength, courage, and protectiveness, as it guarded the boy beneath it. And from it came a field of energy directed mostly towards saving the life of the boy, helping him regain his vitality and strength while pushing away what threatened him.

The bird gave off a loud cry, as the flames around it fell back. It glanced down at Matt, intelligent eyes gazing into his as he looked up. Matt suddenly found himself lost in the strong-willed soul that showed through the bird's eyes, and he could only stare at the one who had saved him.

"_Hello Chosen One._"

Matt jumped and fell back to the ground. "I... you... uh..." he stammered, completely unable to talk any more. Then he gathered his thoughts together and tried to give the bird the most gratifying look he could possibly give. "Thank you for saving me..."

The bird cocked its head in amusement. "_You can pay me back by rescuing my son,_" he answered, nodding with a responsible glint in its eyes. "_For now though... rest for a few moments. I will protect you and let you know what you must._"

It was something with more grandeur and power than anything Matt had seen before, and it acted as a guardian watching over him. Matt just looked up and continued to stare in awe as he caught his breath, feeling his strength begin to return.

After a few moments, the bird looked back down at him, looking slightly curious. "_You've never seen one of my kind before, have you?"_

Matt shook his head honestly.

"_What world are you from?_"

That question surprised him. Matt blinked. "Well, we don't have a name for it..."

He suddenly heard a cackling laugh, which he realized had come from the bird. "_You're from the Human world then. The one rather closely connected to the Digiworld, that is._" At Matt's puzzled stare, the bird sighed. "_Not many from that world know much outside of it. You're a fortunate one."_

"I... I guess so..."

Glancing back at him the bird tilted his head. "_Chosen One, I hope you are ready for what is to come. I assume you have had some experience with destiny, but for now I should let you know who I am._" With a slight pause, he continued. "_I am called Moltres. And you are?_"

"Ishida Yamato," Matt answered. "Or Matt."

"_It is nice to meet you, Matt. Unfortunately we have little time, as I must control the fire and you must continue your quest. _

"_I know that either you or one of the other Chosen Ones has met with Lugia, because you played the song earlier. I also know that you have awoken your inner gift, as you used that to amplify it. So, to set you to continue your quest... please show me the stone._"

Matt blinked for a moment, sitting on the ground in surprise. Then he remembered, earlier that morning, receiving something from Nicole as she told him to carry it with him...

Quickly, he retrieved a stone from his pocket, realizing to his personal annoyance that he had forgotten to give the other one to Gabumon. With a sigh, he felt the weight of the stone in his hand, and he could not help but stare again at the clear crystalline object with the teardrop symbol floating within.

Then he held it out for Moltres to see.

The bird nodded. "_I add my power to yours. You have my sign._"

The stone in Matt's hand glowed a brilliant red, bright like the light of the fire around him and Moltres. Glancing back, he noticed something from his pocket glowing as well; it took him a moment to realize that the other stone had been affected. Looking to the stone in his hand once more, he saw a symbol forming inside, into the shape of a little flame that seemed to jump weightlessly from side to side of the hollow chamber.

As the glow dissipated, Moltres spoke again. "_Now, I must give you my song as well. Listen well, Matt._"

An upbeat, march-like tune sprang through the air, though mystical and filled with power. It seemed to resonate throughout the area, bringing the images of both playfulness and fiery rage to Matt's mind. He concentrated hard, thinking about the song and making sure to remember it. He knew he had to, because it was of utmost importance that he did.

Soon, the song had ended and Matt was busy playing it over and over in his mind. He barely registered when Moltres nudged him with his claw. "_Working on trying to remember, young one?_" he chuckled, gently pushing Matt forward and to his feet. "_You have cause to do so – Mewtwo will want to hear it._"

Matt blinked in surprise. "Mewtwo?" he asked, placing the stone back into his pocket and turning to look up at Moltres again. "He's another one of guardians, right?"

"_Yes, he is. You will need to seek him out from the Desert Colossus. It is... a building rather like both a temple and a laboratory in the desert beyond these woods,_" Moltres instructed, holding out the claw and glancing about the clearing with a wary eye. "_Hurry onto my claw; I will carry you to the edge of the forest. I only have so much time to stop this fire from becoming a death blaze._"

Matt quickly obeyed Moltres, climbing on just like he would have with Birdramon and holding on tightly. With a loud victorious cry, Moltres sprang into the air, rushing up past the burning trees and flying into the dusk sky. Matt felt the wind brush past his face, and watched as the place where he thought he would die move away into a sea of red below.

"_This is an unnatural rebirth. The fire comes when it is needed, and never for unnecessary destruction._"

It took Matt a moment to realize that Moltres was speaking about the forest. He looked down at the still blazing fire. "We were attacked... the lightning started the fire," he answered quietly.

Moltres drew his head sharply. "_The lightning... you were attacked by one with lightning... who was this being?_"

"I don't know. But he was... controlling the lightning and riding on the back of a Pidgeot. I didn't see him from close up," Matt answered truthfully. "I don't know who he was... I think some of the pokémon and Nicole did..."

As he spoke, something hit him. Nicole was the one who had taught him the song, who had told everyone what was going on, and even given him the stones in the first place.

"She's a Chosen One!" Matt suddenly shouted. "Nicole's a Chosen One! Why didn't she tell us? She met with Lugia and told us what was happening! Why..."

"_Perhaps she still did not accept her destiny,_" Moltres replied, calmly. "_I will have to ask her about that man when we reach your group. Because, the lightning..._"

The bird trailed off. Matt was unsure why, but he knew soon he might. He could see the dark area past the flaming forest, and inwardly he could feel his heart still pumping from his near death encounter. Now that he was safe, he remembered the dream he had had, the one that started the entire adventure, the one that had the scene of him in the forest fire.

It was a prophetic dream. His experience was over... and what about everyone else?

* * *

Everyone stared silently into the blazing fire, not bothering to cover their faces to shield themselves from the heat. They only could think of someone who had been lost, gone and consumed by the flames. 

The battle had not been a victory. They had only repelled Jelisvan, and in return one of their number had disappeared.

Somehow, everyone was still numbed by the idea, unable to believe that Matt was gone. No tear had been shed – there was only denial that it had happened.

They did not have much to grieve.

A great flaming bird shot out of the sky, landing rather forcefully on the ground right before the group (though seeming to favor one leg). The heat and force of air, as well as the sudden appearance of the creature shocked everyone stiff.

"_Hello._"

"AAAAAAAAAHH!"

Moltres tilted his fire plumed head to the side and glanced at the group of rather stunned humans, digimon, and pokémon. "_I do not believe I am that intimidating, am I?_"

"Uh... I don't know if I can answer that question."

"AAAAAAAAAHH!"

This time, almost the whole of everyone ran forward to hug a figure they had thought dead.

"Matt, you're alive!"

"You're all right, I couldn't believe you could be gone..."

"MATT!"

Matt only laughed and hugged back, relieved to be safe and unhurt. He felt himself be pulled down by the giant mass of humans and monsters, and could only feel gratitude that he was still alive and with all of his friends.

Moltres chuckled again, watching the scene. Then he noticed one pokémon, with wings and a flaming tail, turn towards him and bow down low. "It's an honor, Moltres," the pokémon said solemnly.

The group grew quiet as Moltres moved forward slightly, nodding at Charizard's figure. "_I am proud to do you all the service you need. What comes ahead is important and dangerous, for which you will need each person and every source of help. Thank you, fire pokémon. I only have one favor to ask... I wish to speak with the other human Chosen One._"

The entire group stopped, looking at each other and unsure of whom Moltres was speaking of. The Digidestined kept glancing about, wondering who it was Moltres wanted to speak to...

Then Matt moved forward towards Charizard and gazed at the pitiful bundle the fire pokémon was still carrying protectively.

Charizard lifted his head and looked down at Nicole, still unconscious and weak. She seemed unresponsive to anything as she lay limp in his arms, and he hugged her closely.

Moltres took a step forward and bowed his head down to Nicole. He glowed slightly red for a moment, before stepping back once more and gazing intently at the girl.

Nicole fidgeted, then opened her eyes.

As everyone stared at Moltres and Nicole, the bird opened his beak again. "_Chosen One, are you well now?_"

Nicole blinked, then nodded weakly. "Somewhat... I should recover. Thank you, Moltres," she answered gratifyingly.

"_I hope you return to your normal state soon. I heard that this group was attacked by a man who wielded lightning. Who was this man?"_

"Jelisvan. Pokémon Master. Holder of Lightning and Destruction, Seeker of Power," she said softly. With a wry grin, she added, "He gave himself the last two titles."

"_A rather conceited man, but a threat nonetheless. Thank you, Chosen One. I will be sure to remember this Dark Lord,_" Moltres practically spat out the last two words, anger flashing in his eyes. "_Beware him, but be prepared... he will have to be defeated eventually._"

Turning back towards the forest, Moltres looked over his shoulder. "_I am sorry for my manner, but I must tend to the forest. Remember the Desert Colossus. And..._" Moltres suddenly looked a little apprehensive and apologetic. "_Watch out around Mewtwo... he can be moody sometimes..."_

"_Farewell, and good luck."_

With that, Moltres sprang back into the air, disappearing into a fiery blur in the sky above the forest.

The entire group sat still for a few moments as the events of what had just happened sunk in. Then...

Everyone (minus Nicole and Charizard, who had missed out on everything that had happened earlier) resumed the rejoicing in that Matt was alive.

A few moments later, everyone turned and glared at Nicole.

She laughed nervously. "Um... eh heh heh... I take it I missed a lot?"

* * *

Many minutes, outbursts, and gasps of shock later, everyone had come to a general consensus that they had just gone through a rather taxing day. They had been met with many realizations, and as a group, had voted on moving out towards the desert and going straight to bed. 

Izzy, who was on watch with Tentomon and Haunter, sighed as he thought about everything that had happened. It had been decided that the group needed more than Haunter to watch, especially after what had happened that day, so Izzy and Tentomon were helping that night for a few hours. Then it would be Tai and Agumon's turn.

Watching the large mass of huddled bodies sprawled out on the sand, Izzy wanted nothing more than to collapse into a restful sleep. But something else seemed to puzzle him, something he had noticed during the battle earlier with Jelisvan. Of course, it had been a stressful experience which was why he had not paid it much attention at first, but now as he looked around at the sleeping figures of his friends, he could not help but think about it.

Quietly, he looked over at Biyomon, focusing slightly on her. Within a few moments, he knew that she was tired and slightly hungry, but warm and otherwise content (albeit sleeping). She was also, in her subconscious, craving ice cream. And she would be very much hurt if she ever stuck her claws into an electrical outlet... moreso than most others, anyway.

The sudden influx of information astounded Izzy.

Wondering quite how that happened, he decided to look at Sora and focus on her.

What he got was that Sora was actually physically stronger than at this state, Biyomon, only Biyomon had special abilities. Also, Sora was completely exhausted and was sleeping off all tiredness and the emotional upheaval of having seen a friend of hers fall to his death (though he survived). Just like Biyomon weirdly enough, she was also craving ice cream in her subconscious.

That was probably a mental connection between the two of them. Izzy had to wonder where that had started though.

As one more trial, he decided to look at Haunter, who seemed to be aimlessly wandering around not paying much attention to anything (but Izzy knew better). Quietly, he focused on the pokémon...

Haunter was quite well off, though feeling a slight need for rest and desperately in need of entertainment. He was also very strong, and tensed in case another attack came. He was also thinking of pranking both Izzy and Tentomon.

The only thing Izzy could think of was, 'I have this weird power what is going on I must find out why... wait I already know why. I get it.'

Well, he certainly knew what his inner ability was now.

Sighing, he sat back and thought about what had happened after Moltres' departure.

"I should have known," he said aloud to himself, remembering the revelation of Nicole's status as a Chosen One.

"Nicole," everyone had been saying, listening to it via the strange translating magical stream in the world. What had come up was the phrase base of "Victory" in Greek. Needless to say, everyone understood the connection with the prophecy after that.

"Okay okay, sorry I didn't tell you, I just didn't believe it!" she yelled in annoyance at everyone after the entire group had confirmed her status and scolded her for not telling them.

At that, Charizard gave her a friendly slap on the back, knocking her over.

"Oof!"

Charizard only grinned toothily. "Oh c'mon, what happened to that streak of confidence you used to have back during the journeying days?" he chided at her.

She scowled as she stood back up, dusting some sand off. "I was battling other pokémon trainers and defending various towns with them, not saving the world," she shot back. "Plus with Shor as my rival, it was hard not to at least try to be confident."

"Oh... yeah, good point there..."

"Who's Shor?" Gatomon asked, curiously.

"A good friend and rival." Nicole fingered her necklace as she said it, looking somewhat reminiscent and sad. The other pokémon all sighed as though they remembered as well.

Izzy remembered some other things as well, like the reactions of Nicole and Charizard to everything they had missed earlier. They had been incredulous, shocked, and horrified when they heard about what had happened to Matt, so much that their comments had oscillated from "Oh dear Mew, I can't believe that happened, thank you Moltres, we are not worthy," to "THAT JELISVAN BASTARD NEEDS TO DIE DIE DIE!"

Everyone stared blinking for a few moments at Nicole and Charizard's outbursts, before after some moments of awkward silence, TK smiled, agreeing. "Exactly." He was apparently rather bitter about the fact that Jelisvan had almost succeeded in killing his older brother. It also showed a side to him the others had not quite seen before.

Besides that, there were the important points made in the main discussion later, such as the dream correlation Matt had noted after his rescue from the forest fire.

"So, what happened in the latter part of your prophecy dream actually happened," Tai had stated, looking incredulous and worried at the same time.

Matt nodded. "Yeah... obviously I'm still alive, but yeah it happened."

"Meaning..." Stellath began, trailing off. She had long since returned to a smaller size, though she was now Scyther's height as opposed to the length of one of the human's arms.

Joe looked around, and sighed. "We're all screwed."

"That was a very nice way of putting it, Joe," Gomamon replied.

Finally, there was the very important note of the next destination, which Matt had told everyone of. He had played a song for everyone to hear, deeming it important especially for Nicole and Gabumon to remember.

"Yeah, so we don't know who the last Chosen One is, so everyone should know this too," he continued, glancing about the circle.

Kari sighed and speculated a bit. "It is important. Our only clue is the word 'queen'..."

Sora looked from Kari to Mimi a bit. "Well, I think right now our closest bets are either Kari or Mimi, based off of some Digiworld stuff that happened..."

While Kari and Mimi blinked for a few moments, Agumon jumped up. "Oh yeah, I remember that! All those Numemon calling Kari Queen and then Mimi being Princess... wait, that was princess..."

"I don't know about the 'princess' part," Mimi replied humbly to Tai's comment, looking down at the ground. "I wasn't really much of one..."

Palmon patted Mimi's shoulder. "It's okay Mimi, actually the Gekomon and Otamamon still think of you as a princess."

"Really?"

Matt shrugged. "Well, we don't know about the last person yet, so..." he took one stone out of his pocket and glanced at Gabumon and Nicole. "I should probably give this to one of you..."

Gabumon stepped back slightly. "Why don't you give it to Nicole? I don't have pockets," the digimon offered.

Nicole smiled sincerely at Gabumon. "Thanks, Gabumon."

"Not a problem."

Matt carefully walked over and gave Nicole the stone. She nodded in thanks, before examining it, seeing the new symbol inside of it.

Then she paused, remembering what something that Matt had spoken of earlier. "Hey Matt, you said that Mewtwo was the next one?"

At his nod, she turned slightly pale. As did all of the pokémon and Stellath.

The others stared. "What's wrong?" Tai asked.

Scyther grimaced, looking yellow. "Well, Moltres really meant it when he said to watch out around Mewtwo..."

Izzy could remember that that had really been the end of the conversation. The Poké group seemed very nervous concerning the next Guardian, and noting Moltres from earlier, he could assume why.

Quietly, he stoked the makeshift fire that Tai, Agumon, and Charizard had been very helpful in making. As he stared into it, it still reminded him of the events of that day, how the group had been attacked by someone so powerful, and they had nearly lost someone.

Tentomon nudged him. "Hey Izzy, are you okay?"

"... I'm just thinking about today."

"Oh. It was... really very scary."

A cold, strange presence right behind him made Izzy suddenly whirl around. Haunter was floating there, looking a little serious... and from Izzy's new quick perceptive abilities, he could tell that the pokémon had dropped the idea of pranking them. For now at least.

"Jelisvan is powerful... I'm not sure how we'll defeat him, actually," he said, staring at the fire.

Izzy could at least tell that Haunter was worried. Curious, since it seemed the Poké group knew the man, he decided to ask. "Haunter, how does your group know Jelisvan?"

Haunter was silent for a moment, before answering. "He once attacked us during Nicole's journey. We never defeated him... it was Nicole and Shor's abilities flaring up that got us away in time. You know, Shor, our other pokémon trainer friend," he added, at Tentomon and Izzy's slightly confused look. "Anyway, after that we never heard from him again... we heard he'd disappeared, actually."

He paused. "Well, actually it was towards the end of Nicole's journey when that happened, at which point we ended up at Nicole's home, so we never did find out what happened to him."

"I see," Tentomon answered.

They were silent again for a little while, only looking around as they made sure that no enemies were coming. After some time, Haunter sighed. "This is depressing."

When Izzy and Tentomon turned to the ghost-type, Haunter bounced in the air. "I don't like being depressed! I'm being too nostalgic too! And I'm bored!"

Izzy crossed his arms and smiled. "Okay then, how about we tell some stories until it's Tai's shift? Some things that we wouldn't expect about our respective groups."

Haunter began grinning manically. "Ooh, I can tell you plenty. Like the donut obsessed Gyrados, or Charizard's first flight, or when we accidentally got Venusaur drunk... well, he was an Ivysaur back then, but it was so funny..."

Izzy smiled. In some ways, the day had been one of much stress and excitement, with so much happening... but he had learned quite a good deal from it. And now, he was bonding with Haunter in the middle of the night over stories of adventures the respective groups had once gone through. He had to admit, he missed times like this back from the earlier adventure.

* * *

**This week's NG**: 

_What Might have Happened if Moltres Stayed Longer_

Moltres chuckled again, watching the scene. Then he noticed one pokémon, with wings and a flaming tail, turn towards him and bow down low. "It's an honor, Moltres," the pokémon said solemnly.

Then Charizard stood up. "Excuse me for one moment," he apologized, before running over to Venusaur, who had been released from his pokeball the moment Charizard had reached the edge of the forest. "Hold her please," he quickly proffered up Nicole, still unconscious, to the plant pokémon.

Venusaur blinked, but raising a nonexistent eyebrow, he unfurled his vines and carefully took Nicole from Charizard's arms and held her gently.

Then Charizard dashed back to Moltres before throwing himself on the ground before the bird pokémon's feet. "Oh Great Moltres, I am not worthy of standing in your presence!" he shouted, looking as though he was worshipping Moltres.

"…_there is no need to do that._"

"You are most venerable and gracious, Great Moltres! I prostrate myself before you, one of Fire!"

"…"

"You, magnanimous Guardian, I am not worthy! I am not worthy! I am not worthy!" Charizard began repeating while bowing down continuously.

"…_thank you?_"

"I am not worthy! I am not worthy! I am not worthy! Oh, and Jelisvan needs to DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIIIIEEEEE!"

Moltres' eyes narrowed. "_Is this Jelisvan the one who attacked you?_"

Charizard bowed once again. "Yes, venerable Guardian, Lord of Fire, Great Legendary - "

"_Forgive me for interrupting your worship of me, but indeed..._" Moltres paused for a moment, before continuing. "_Jelisvan must die._"

"Yes! A most horrible, gruesome death befitting of the vilest men alive! He shall burn in the hellfires! KIIILL HIM! KIIIIILL!" Charizard then proceeded to stand up and begin what looked like a war dance.

As the others stared at Charizard, Moltres sighed to himself and sweatdropped. "_I must indeed be very intimidating..."_

Without warning, all of the other pokémon plus Stellath jumped in with Charizard, rage burning in their eyes as they shouted in a war chant.

"KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL HIM!"

"... they're so violent," Kari commented.

"_... or very, very inspiring._"


End file.
